WOME/'i 

WORKERS 

OF  THE. 


ORIE/iT 


BY 

/MARGARET  E.  BURTON 


tiff, 


\ 


I 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2016 


https ://  a rc  h i ve . o rg/d  eta  i I s/wo  m e n wo  rke  rsof  o rO  0 b u rt_0 


Copyright  by  Underwood  and  Underwood , N.  Y. 


AN  UPHILL  TASK  IN  INDIA 


WOMEN  WORKERS 
OF  THE  ORIENT 


MARGARET  E.  BURTON 


Published  bv 

The  Central  Committee  on  the  United 
Study  of  Foreign  Missions 
West  Medford,  Mass. 


by 


COPYRIGHT  1918 

Tm  Central  Committee  on  the  United 
Study  or  Foreicn  Missions 


THE  TERMONT  PRINTl.VO  COMPANY 
BRATTLEBORO 


STATEMENT  OF 
THE  CENTRAL  COMMITTEE 
ON  THE  UNITED  STUDY  OF 
FOREIGN  MISSIONS 

The  Central  Committee,  following  the  program 
suggested  by  the  Committee  of  Twenty-eight,  pre- 
sents this,  its  eighteenth  volume,  Women  Workers  of 
the  Orient.  While  in  some  countries  of  the  Orient 
there  is  as  yet  little  suggestion  of  industrialism  and 
its  problems,  with  which  we  are  so  familiar,  women 
have  always  had,  in  every  land,  their  own  heavy  bur- 
dens, industrial  and  economic.  Miss  Burton  has 
treated  the  subject  broadly,  rather  than  in  a narrow 
and  technical  sense.  She  has  shown  in  each  chapter, 
but  more  especially  in  the  last,  the  relation  of  mis- 
sionaries to  the  oppressed  and  weary  women  of 
the  East,  such  women  as  the  Master  taught  in 
Judea  and  Galilee.  This  great  company  must  look 
today  to  His  representatives  for  His  message  which 
alone  can  bring  full  liberation  and  development. 
We  are  indebted  to  Miss  Burton  for  a wealth  of  new 
material,  the  result  of  wide  travel  and  research. 
She  has  given  us  a valuable  text-book,  which  will 
supply  the  best  possible  outlines  for  programs  and 
study  classes. 

Mrs.  Henry  W.  Peabody,  Chairman. 

Miss  Olivia  H.  Lawrence. 

Mrs.  Frank.  Mason  North. 

Mrs.  James  A.  Webb,  Jr. 

Mrs.  A.  V.  Pohlman. 

Miss  Alice  M.  Kyle. 

Miss  Grace  T.  Colburn. 


CONTENTS 


Page 

Preface  7 

Chapter  I.  Work,  within  the  Home  . . 11 

Chapter  II.  The  Wage  Earners  . . . 41 

Chapter  III.  Broadening  Horizons  . . 81 

Chapter  IV.  The  Trail  Makers  . . . 123 

Chapter  V.  Women  working  together  . 169 

Chapter  VI.  The  Call  for  Leaders  . . 207 

A Brief  Reading  List  .......  231 

Index 233 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


Facino 

Page 

Am  Uphill  Task  im  India Frontispiece 

Bread-making  in  Syria 9 

Women  Field  Workers  or  China 24 

Housewives  of  India 24 

Breaking  Stones  is  a Woman’s  Task  in  China 32 

Two  of  India’s  Porters 41 


Japanese  Women  Coalino  a Trans-Pacific  Liner  at  Nagasaki  . 56 


A "Bridge  Party”  of  Japanese  Women 73 

Child  Labor  in  the  Factories  or  Turkey 88 

A "Boat-woman”  in  China 105 

A Mohammedan  Woman — Unveiled! 120 

A Cooking  Class  in  Japan 137 

Social  Service  in  China 137 

Red  Cross  Nurses  of  Japan  just  back  from  Service  in  France  151 

Halideh  Hanoum 193 

Dr.  Mary  Stone,  Head  of  the  Danfop.th  Memorial 

Hospital,  Kiukiang 201 

Work  and  Play  in  the  Madras  Women’s  College  . . . 216 

Future  Leaders  of  China  in  Gin  ling's  Courtyard  ....  224 


PREFACE 


For  the  first  time  in  its  history,  the  Central  Com- 
mittee on  the  United  Study  of  Foreign  Missions  is 
sending  out  a text-book  into  the  midst  of  a nation  at 
war.  The  book  for  1918  is  the  first  of  the  series  to 
make  an  appeal  tor  the  attention  of  women  whose 
sons  and  husbands  are  on  battlefields  and  in  training 
camps;  whose  minds  and  hearts  are  full  to  overflow- 
ing with  the  thoughts  of  what  is  going  on  “over 
there”;  whose  hands  and  brains  are  busy  day  in  and 
day  out  with  a score  of  time-consuming  war  tasks. 
Has  such  a book  as  this  a valid  claim  upon  us  in  this 
year,  1918?  When  our  men  are  fighting  in  Europe, 
can  we  stop  to  study  about  the  women  in  Asia? 
When  our  days  are  overcrowded  with  our  own  tasks, 
can  we  take  the  time  to  think  of  the  tasks  of  far- 
away women? 

Such  questions  may,  at  first  thought,  arise  in  the 
minds  of  some  of  us.  But  second  thought  cannot  fail 
to  bring  the  vivid  realization  that  the  women  of 
America  are  one  today,  as  never  before,  with  the 
women  who,  in  other  lands,  are  sharing  with  them 
in  the  work  of  a world  in  which  the  terms  “mine” 
and  “thine”  have  been  suddenly  and  inextricably 
melted  by  a common  flame  of  suffering  into  that 


8 


WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 


uniting  word  “ours.”  How  can  we,  in  whose  windows 
service  flags  are  flying,  fail  to  feel  our  oneness  with 
the  women  in  India,  whose  hands  are  unceasingly 
busy  with  household  tasks,  but  whose  thoughts  are 
far  away  with  youth  who  fight  side  by  side  with 
those  from  our  own  homes?  We  should  be  less  than 
human  if  the  hunger,  the  peril,  the  death  of  women 
and  little  children  in  war-ravaged  lands  did  not  stir 
us  to  sacrifice.  But  we  should  also  be  unthinking 
and  unseeing  if  we  failed  to  realize  that  the  developing 
industrialism  of  the  Orient  is  destroying  the  health, 
the  purity,  the  life  itself  of  countless  women  and 
little  children  of  Asia;  even  as  war  is  working  its 
destruction  upon  those  in  Europe.  When  a world 
conflict  is  forcing  us  to  accept  for  1918,  and  all 
future  years,  responsibilities  not  before  laid  upon 
women,  to  undertake  tasks  of  a magnitude  hitherto 
undreamed  of  by  us,  can  we  be  willing  to  be  ignorant 
of  the  far  more  revolutionary  changes  in  the  life  of 
Oriental  women,  of  the  new  responsibilities  into 
which  they,  also,  are  being  thrust,  but  with  how  much 
less  of  preparation,  of  understanding,  of  guidance! 
When  we  are  tearing  down  the  obstructing  walls 
that  have  divided  class  from  class  and  nation  from 
nation,  that  we  may  together  seek  the  good  of  all  the 
world,  can  we  pass  over,  unheeding,  the  breaking  of 
the  barriers  that  have  kept  the  women  of  the  Orient 
apart?  Can  we  fail  to  see  the  significance  for  the 


Copyright  by  Underwood  and  Underwood , N.  Y. 


BREAD-MAKING  IN  SYRIA 


PREFACE 


9 


Kingdom  of  God  of  the  coming  together  of  these 
women,  if  only  they  be  guided  by  the  Spirit  of  Him 
who  prayed  that  we  might  all  be  one?  Our  soldiers 
are  upon  the  battle  field  today  to  help  to  keep  the 
world  a place  in  which  men  and  women  and  little 
children  may  have  life  and  have  it  more  abundantly. 
And  our  missionaries  are  at  the  front  today,  pouring 
out  their  lives  for  the  peoples  of  Asia,  that  through 
the  glad  knowledge  of  Jesus  Christ  they  may  have 
the  life  He  came  to  bring  and  have  it  more  abund- 
antly. It  is  one  goal,  one  purpose.  We  must  make 
every  necessary  sacrifice  for  the  strength  of  our 
armies  in  Europe,  and  our  missionaries  in  Asia.  To 
neglect  either  is  to  forfeit  the  victory  for  which,  by 
different  paths,  but  with  the  same  vision  and  de- 
votion, both  are  striving. 

The  cause  of  the  women  at  work  in  the  Orient  has 
never  had  a more  evident  claim  upon  us  than  in  1918. 
The  soldier  in  France,  the  missionary  in  China,  we 
at  home  who  stand  behind  them  both,  are  together 
working  to  bring  peace  on  earth,  good  will  to  men. 

Margaret  E.  Burton. 


Christmas , /p/7. 


CHAPTER  I. 


Suggested  Scripture  Reading. 

Christ's  Sympathetic  Knowledge  oj  the  Home  Tasks  of  Women. 
Luke  13:20, 21;  15: 8, 9. 

Work,  within  the  Home. 

The  Woman  of  Moslem  Countries: 

Her  household  tasks. 

Her  work  in  the  field. 

Her  home  industries. 

The  Woman  of  India: 

The  life  of  the  poorest. 

The  household  duties  in  homes  less  poor. 

The  Woman  of  China: 

The  home  she  makes. 

The  clothing  required  by  weather  “twelve  coats  cold.” 

Her  care  of  her  baby. 

Her  work  in  the  field. 

Her  home  industries. 

The  difference  when  she  has  been  taught  in  a Christian 
school. 

The  Woman  of  Japan: 

The  life  of  the  farmer’s  wife. 

The  life  of  the  artisan’s  wife. 

The  Woman  of  Leisure: 

In  the  harem  of  the  Near  East. 

Behind  the  purdah  in  India. 

In  the  official’s  family  of  China. 

In  the  home  of  wealth  of  Japan. 

The  new  day  and  the  need  of  us. 


WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 


CHAPTER  I. 

WORK  WITHIN  THE  HOME 

“Man’s  work  is  from  sun  to  sun 
But  woman’s  work  is  never  done.” 

This  couplet  may  have  originated  in  the  western 
half  of  the  world,  but  is  no  less  true  of  the  eastern 
half.  In  Turkey,  India,  China,  and  Japan,  as  truly 
as  in  the  United  States,  there  are,  and  always  have 
been,  homes  to  keep  in  order,  meals  to  be  prepared, 
clothing  to  be  made  and  washed,  babies  to  be  fed 
and  cared  for.  Some  of  these  tasks  are  less  arduous 
than  in  this  country,  some  of  them  are  more  so,  but 
everywhere  they  are  woman’s  tasks,  the  work  for 
which  she  is  responsible.  Even  as  the  war  has 
brought  such  changed  conditions  in  Europe  that  her 
women  are  today,  as  a matter  of  course,  giving  them- 
selves to  many  tasks  which  their  mothers  would 
never  have  dreamed  possible  for  women,  so  also  in 
the  Orient  industrial  and  social  changes  have  call- 
ed thousands  upon  thousands  of  Oriental  women 
into  many  and  varied  kinds  of  work  which  their 
mothers  did  not  know  even  existed.  But  true  as  it 
is  that  many  new  lines  of  work  have  opened  for  the 
women  of  the  Orient  within  the  last  few  years,  it  is 
equally  true  that  work,  fer  se,  is  no  new  thing  to 
them.  Within  their  homes  they  have  always  worked, 


12 


WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 


and  it  is  there  that  the  vast  majority  of  them  are 
still  working.  If  we  would  know  how  the  great  host 
of  the  women  of  the  Orient  are  spending  their  days, 
would  see  under  what  conditions  they  are  working, 
would  discover  whether  or  not  the  help  of  women  in 
Christian  lands  is  needed,  we  must  go,  first  of  all, 
to  the  woman  in  the  home. 

The  housewife  As  one  stePs  inside  the  door  of  the 
of  Moslem  average  home  in  the  village  or  town 

countries.  Gf  Turkey  or  Syria,  there  seems,  at 

first,  to  be  comparatively  little  to  keep  the  housewife 
busy  all  day  long.  There  is  very  little  furniture  to 
dust,  next  to  no  dishes  to  wash.  When  the  beds,  on 
which  the  family  has  slept  on  the  floor  through  the 
night,  are  folded  up  and  packed  against  the  wall, 
the  day’s  house  cleaning  is  over.  And  when  we  are 
assured  that  the  styles  in  dress  in  most  parts  of  the 
Ottoman  Empire  have  not  changed  for  at  least  four 
thousand  years,  we  are  very  certain  that  not  many 
of  the  hours  of  the  day  are  spent  in  making,  or  making 
over,  the  family  wardrobe. 

But  there  is  no  bakery  to  which  the 

Mohammedan  mother  can  go  to 
purchase  the  bread  for  her  hungry  men  folk  and 
growing  children.  Nor  can  she  take  down  the 
telephone  and  order  the  grocer  to  send  her  a sack  of 
flour  and  a yeast  cake.  Very  probably  she  has  begun 
to  prepare  the  family’s  bread  by  spending  many  and 
many  a long  hot  day  in  the  wheat  field,  patiently 
pulling  up  the  spears  of  grass  and  weeds  that  would 
hinder  the  growth  of  the  young  wheat.  Later  she 
has  proved  herself  an  adept  at  wielding  the  sickle 
in  the  harvest  field.  Then  comes  the  tedious  task  of 


WORK  WITHIN  THE  HOME  13 

washing  and  picking  over  the  kernels  of  wheat,  and 
next  the  trip  to  the  grist  mill  to  have  them  ground 
into  flour.  Only  then  is  she  ready  to  begin  to  knead 
the  yeast  into  the  flour,  to  make  the  dough,  to  mold 
it  into  round  cakes,  and  set  it  to  rise.  When  it  has 
risen  it  must  be  carefully  patted  into  thin  sheets,  and 
loaded  onto  a huge  tray,  which  is  then  borne  on  the 
housewife’s  patient  head  to  the  public  oven.  There 
the  village  baker,  almost  always  another  woman, 
bakes  it  over  the  conical  clay  oven,  scorching  her 
hands  over  the  quick  fire  of  chaff,  as  she  skillfully 
pats  the  dough  onto  the  walls,  and  peels  it  off  again 
when  it  is  done.  If  she  is  a very  up-to-date  baker, 
she  may  have  a big  brick  oven,  into  the  red-hot 
depths  of  which  she  shoves  the  loaves  on  a large 
wooden  tray. 

Kibby,  a dish  much  in  demand  by  her  house- 
hold, is  another  article  of  food  which  causes  the 
housewife  of  the  Near  East  much  drudgery.  First, 
she  cuts  up  the  meat,  and  places  it  in  a stone  mortar, 
where  she  pounds  it  with  a great  wooden  pestle 
until  her  arms  ache.  Then  she  mixes  coarsely  ground 
wheat  with  it,  and  wields  the  heavy  pestle  again, 
until  the  two  ingredients  have  been  pounded  into  a 
pulp.  Next  comes  the  molding  of  the  cakes  in  her 
hands,  a process  in  which  she  has  usually  attained 
great  dexterity.  At  last  they  are  cooked  and  served — 
first  to  the  critical  men  folk  of  the  family,  then  to 
the  hungry  children,  and  last  of  all  to  the  tired  woman 
who  made  them. 

All  the  butter  and  cheese  which  the  family  eats 
is  prepared  by  the  housewife,  and  in  many  cases  her 
responsibility  includes  the  care  of  the  cattle.  If  the 


I4  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

family  owns  donkeys  or  camels  they,  too,  are  some- 
times her  charges. 

Not  only  the  cooking,  but  the  growing  of  the 
vegetables  is  also  the  responsibility  of  many  a woman 
of  Mohammedan  lands.  She  and  her  daughters 
plant  the  seeds  in  the  spring,  and  gather  the  harvest 
in  the  autumn.  In  fact,  there  is  almost  nothing 
served  on  her  table  which  the  housewife  in  the  village 
home  has  not  had  a hand  in  preparing,  from  its 
earl’est  beginnings  until  the  finished  product  is  set 
before  her  clamoring  family. 

Her  laundry  And  ^ making  her  family’s 
clothes  is  not  a time-consuming  task, 
the  keeping  of  them  clean  causes  her  much  and  hard 
labor.  She  and  a group  of  her  neighbors  go  down  to 
the  river  together,  one  carrying  the  firewood  and 
the  big  kettle  or  copper  pan  which  is  to  serve  as 
washtub,  others  laden  with  the  bundles  of  clothes  to 
be  washed,  the  pails  for  dipping  up  water,  etc., 
almost  all  of  them  bearing  babies  who  must  be  cared 
for  all  through  the  day’s  work.  To  build  the  fire, 
draw  the  water  and  heat  it,  and  wash  the  clothing  is 
a slow  and  wearying  process,  but  the  woman’s  work 
is  by  no  means  over  when  the  washing  is  hung  up  on 
the  bushes  to  dry.  The  babies  must  follow  the  clothes 
into  the  big  iron  kettle,  and,  last  of  all,  the  mother 
herself  indulges  in  the  luxury  of  a bath.  Only  then 
is  she  ready  to  gather  up  the  clean  clothes,  pack  them 
into  the  tubs,  and  carry  them  and  the  babies  wearily 
homeward. 

Her  home  Few  housewives  of  the  Near  East, 

industries.  however,  can  limit  their  labors  to 

cooking,  washing,  care  of  the  babies,  and  work  in 


WORK  WITHIN  THE  HOME  1 5 

their  fields  and  gardens.  Most  of  them  spend  many 
hours  in  efforts  to  add  to  the  family  income  by  some 
form  of  home  industry.  They  are  almost  invariably 
very  skillful  at  all  forms  of  handwork,  and  many 
earn  a very  respectable  income  with  their  needles. 
The  exquisite  lace  and  drawn  work,  by  means  of 
which  Miss  Shattuck  and  other  resourceful  mission- 
aries have  enabled  thousands  of  Armenian  women 
and  girls  to  save  their  lives  in  time  of  famine  and 
massacre,  have  made  many  of  us  in  America  familiar 
with  the  delicate  skill  of  the  fingers  of  many  of  these 
women.  Weaving,  too,  is  an  art  in  which  they  are 
very  proficient. 

Perhaps  the  most  general,  and  certainly  the  most 
laborious,  home  industry  of  the  women  of  the  East 
is  silk  culture.  During  the  busy  season  the  whole 
family  must  help,  but  the  constant  direction  of  it  is 
entrusted  to  the  women,  and  the  heaviest  burdens 
fall  upon  them.  Early  in  the  spring  their  skillful 
fingers  mold  the  earthen  trays,  in  which  the  baby 
silk  worms  are  kept  warm.  Then  mulberry  leaves 
must  be  pulled,  packed  into  huge  sacks,  and  carried 
from  the  grove  to  the  house — often  a long  distance 
to  carry  so  heavy  a load.  Next  the  leaves  must  be 
cut  into  fine  pieces,  and  fed  to  the  hungry  worms  at 
regular  intervals  through  the  day  and  night  for  three 
weeks.  During  the  last  days  of  this  period  the  worms 
eat  so  continuously  and  greedily  that  rest  and  sleep 
must  be  rigorously  postponed,  in  order  that  the  crop 
may  not  be  lost  through  some  mishap  at  the  end. 
This  happens  not  once  a year,  but  two  or  three  times, 
according  to  the  number  of  silk  crops.  After  the 
cocoon  is  spun,  the  silk  must  be  unreeled  immediately. 


i6 


WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 


lest  the  sleeping  grub  wake  and  eat  his  way  out,  to 
the  destruction  of  the  precious  nest  he  has  woven. 
This  is  another  phase  of  sericulture  which  must  be 
done  under  high  pressure,  and  this  is  always  woman’s 
work.  It  takes  her  quick  eye  and  skillful  fingers  to 
unroll  the  almost  invisible  threads  without  breaking 
them.  But  her  work  is  by  no  means  over  when  the 
cocoon  is  unwound.  For  weeks  thereafter,  as  she 
goes  about  the  village  on  household  errands,  her 
hands  are  constantly  busy  with  the  distaff,  which 
helps  her  to  transform  the  hanks  of  raw  silk  into 
golden  thread.  Later  she  weaves  the  thread  into 
lengths  of  cloth,  which  she  makes  into  garments  for 
her  family,  or  offers  for  sale.  Reeling  cotton  for  the 
looms  of  the  men  is  another  home  industry  which 
has  given  employment  to  many  women. 

“Can  you  read?”  a missionary  once  asked  a 
Persian  village  woman.  “This  is  our  life,”  the 
woman  replied,  “to  beat  the  clothes  on  the  rocks  in 
the  river,  to  mould  cakes  of  manure,  to  carry  heavy 
loads,  to  spin,  sew,  weave,  bake,  and  make  cakes,  to 
bear  children,  and  grow  old  and  toothless.  For  all  this 
we  get  only  blows  and  abuse,  and  we  live  in  fear  of 
divorce.  Have  we  time  to  read?" 

Household  In  t^ie  poorest  families  of  India  the 

tasks  in  woman  has  practically  no  household 

India.  duties,  for  she  has  no  leisure  for  them. 

She,  as  well  as  her  husband,  goes  out  day  after  day, 
often  with  her  wee  brown  baby  on  her  hip  or  in  its 
little  basket,  to  hire  herself  out  for  the  heaviest  kind 
of  “coolie  labor”  in  city  street  or  country  field.  In 
homes  where  the  pinch  of  poverty  is  not  quite  so 
acute,  but  where  the  income  is  nevertheless  very 


WORK  WITHIN  THE  HOME  1 7 

small,  the  household  tasks  must  be  very  simple,  for 
the  greater  part  of  the  woman’s  time  and  attention 
must  be  given  to  helping  her  husband  in  whatever 
his  work  may  be,  the  potter’s  wife  helping  in  the 
making  of  pottery,  the  weaver’s  wife  assisting  in  the 
various  processes  of  weaving,  the  farmer’s  wife 
taking  her  place  in  the  field  beside  him  and  bearing 
her  share  in  the  planting,  weeding,  and  harvesting 
of  the  crops.  It  is  only  in  the  homes  where  the  in- 
come is,  for  India,  fairly  comfortable,  that  women 
can  give  their  entire  time  to  the  care  of  their  homes 
and  children. 

The  houses  of  India,  like  those  of  the  Near  East, 
do  not  usually  impose  heavy  burdens  on  the  house- 
keeper. The  furnishings  are  of  the  simplest,  and 
there  is  little  to  catch  dust  or  dirt.  But  the  prepa- 
ration of  food  is  an  arduous  and  time-consuming 
process,  for  when  the  housewife  of  India  wants  rice, 
she  must  not  only  wash  and  cook  it,  but  husk  it; 
when  her  menu  calls  for  wheat  cakes  she  must  wash, 
dry,  and  grind  the  wheat  in  her  handmill,  before  she 
has  any  flour  with  which  to  mix  them.  All  the  water 
she  uses  must  be  drawn  from  the  village  well,  often  a 
long  distance  from  her  home,  and  brought  home  in 
large,  porous  jars,  gracefully  balanced  on  the  top  of 
her  head.  She  has  no  dishes  to  wash,  for  the  highly 
seasoned  food  she  prepares  is  conveyed  to  the  mouth 
in  little  deftly  rolled  balls;  but  the  brass  pots  and 
pans  in  which  it  is  cooked  must  be  scoured  until  they 
are  dazzlingly  bright.  She  is  usually  exceedingly 
skillful  at  all  these  tasks,  this  graceful,  gentle  wife 
and  mother  of  India,  for  she  began  to  learn  how  to 
perform  them  when  she  was  barely  six,  and  by  the 


l8  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

time  she  was  eight  she  was  well  versed  in  all  house- 
hold duties.  Her  mother  had  trained  her  thoroughly, 
for  well  she  knew  that  when,  a pitifully  few  years 
later,  she  went  to  her  husband’s  home,  a strict 
mother-in-law  would  make  life  hard,  indeed,  for  the 
child  wife  who  was  not  efficient  in  every  household 
art. 

Even  in  the  homes  of  comparative  wealth,  the 
life  of  the  mother  and  daughter  is  largely  spent  in 
such  household  duties  as  these,  and,  though  servants 
may  sometimes  be  employed  to  help,  the  actual 
cooking  of  the  food  is  done  by  the  women  of  the 
family.  A woman  of  India  gives  the  following  picture 
of  a day  in  the  life  of  a Hindu  girl  whom  she  describes 
as  “upper  class.” 

The  day  of  “She  rises  early,  before  sunrise,  and 

a Hindu  girl.  accompanies  her  mother  to  the  river 

to  bathe  and  perform  her  morning  devotions  in  one 
of  the  numerous  temples  beside  the  river.  A bell 
hanging  by  the  door  is  rung  as  they  enter  the  temple, 
to  apprise  the  god  of  their  arrival.  They  bow  humbly 
before  the  idol  with  folded  hands,  pour  some  ghee 
or  clarified  butter  in  the  little  lamp  that  is  kept  con- 
stantly burning  before  it,  repeat  a certain  number 
of  prayers,  pour  some  water  over  it,  decorate  it  with 
flowers,  apply  some  red  powder  to  it,  go  round  it  a 
certain  number  of  times  and  then  make  another  low 
bow  to  it  before  leaving  the  temple.  The  burden  of  a 
married  woman’s  prayer  is  that  her  husband  and 
children  should  be  kept  in  health  and  strength  and 
that  she  may  die  before  her  husband;  and  that  of  an 
unmarried  girl  is  that  she  may  have  a good  husband 
and  a happy  home. 


WORK  WITHIN  THE  HOME  I9 

“The  rest  of  the  day  is  spent  by  the  mother  and 
daughter  in  various  household  duties,  such  as  sweep- 
ing the  house,  scouring  the  brass  and  silver  pots  and 
pans  till  they  shine,  cooking  the  mid-day  meal, 
bathing  and  feeding  the  children  and  sending  them 
to  school,  serving  the  men  in  the  house  with  their 
food  before  they  go  to  their  various  duties,  having 
their  own  meals  in  the  kitchen,  and  then  cleaning  the 
kitchen  and  utensils  used.  The  women  are  never 
free  till  the  afternoon,  and  even  then  one  rarely 
finds  a high-class  Hindu  woman  idle;  one  generally 
sees  her  seated  on  the  verandah  cleaning  grain  which 
has  to  be  stored  for  the  year  in  special  receptacles. 
Friends  drop  in  carrying  baskets  or  trays  of  grain  and 
sit  on  the  verandah  beside  her,  exchange  news,  and 
discuss  the  doings  of  their  neighbors.  Very  soon  it 
is  time  for  the  evening  meal  to  be  prepared.  Children 
come  home  hungry  from  school  and  have  to  be  fed 
and  put  to  bed.  The  men  have  their  food  and  retire 
to  their  sitting  rooms  or  to  the  village  hall,  and  the 
mothers  sit  and  watch  their  daughters  playing  games 
in  the  garden  or  listen  to  them  as  they  sing  about  the 
moon,  the  flowers,  or  the  doings  of  Krishna,  one  of 
the  favorite  Hindu  incarnations.” 

The  Chinese  The  average  home  in  China  gives 
woman’s  home.  little  evidence  of  the  potential  energy 
and  ability  which  Chinese  women  have  so  con- 
vincingly demonstrated  in  various  ways.  It  is  not 
for  nothing  that  the  Chinese  ideograph  for  home, 
being  analyzed,  reveals  itself  to  be  a pig  under  a 
roof.  Centuries  of  bound  feet  are  undoubtedly 
chiefly  responsible  for  the  fact  that,  as  a whole,  the 
women  of  China  are  the  least  efficient  housekeepers 


20 


WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 


among  Oriental  women.  Their  homes,  like  most 
Oriental  homes,  are  simple  in  furnishing,  with  no 
curtains,  carpets,  or  rugs  to  collect  dust,  and  with  no 
decorations  on  the  walls  save  an  occasional  scroll. 
Yet  dust  collects — on  walls,  windows,  and  floors — 
and  is  only  occasionally  disturbed  by  a whisking 
feather  duster  which  takes  no  account  of  corners. 
The  floors  are  swept  up  with  a coarse  broom  every  so 
often,  but  the  accumulated  trash  may  repose  in  a 
dust  pan  behind  the  door  from  one  week’s  end  to 
another.  The  yard,  too,  becomes  fairly  choked  with 
the  accumulated  rubbish  of  weeks  and  months. 

Cooking  is  no  such  arduous  process 

for  the  Chinese  woman  as  for  the 
housewife  of  India  or  the  Turkish  empire.  Her  house- 
hold demands  no  laboriously  made  kibby , and 
would  scorn  the  wheaten  flour  which  the  child  wife 
of  India  spends  so  long  a time  in  preparing.  Plain 
boiled  rice  and  stewed  vegetables  and  meat  satisfy 
their  wants;  and  if  the  vegetables  have  not  been 
cleaned,  and  have  been  cooked  scarcely  enough  to 
disinfect  them,  no  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  sanitation 
mars  the  enjoyment  of  them. 

TT  . But  if  the  Chinese  woman  has  an 

Her  sewing.  . . . , , 

easier  time  at  cooking  than  her  sister 
in  India,  the  latter  has  the  advantage  when  it  comes 
to  making  the  family’s  clothing.  The  little  brown 
baby  can  be  perfectly  comfortable  all  day  long  with 
no  more  elaborate  dress  than  a string  of  bright  beads, 
and  if  he  wears  a bit  of  a smock  it  is  not  for  warmth. 
But  the  little  Chinese  may  wake  up  to  mornings 
which  are  “twelve  coats  cold,”  and  during  several 
weeks  of  the  year  must  keep  warm  by  having  one 


WORK  WITHIN  THE  HOME 


21 


little  padded  jacket  piled  on  top  of  another,  until  he 
is  fully  as  broad  as  he  is  long.  The  brown  baby’s 
mother’s  graceful  sari  is  but  a single  long  strip  of 
cloth;  but  the  Chinese  mother’s  long  trousers,  skirt, 
and  tunic  all  require  cutting  and  sewing.  She  also 
makes  the  stockings  and  heavy  cloth  shoes  for  her- 
self and  her  family,  although  when  the  family  can 
afford  it,  the  tailor  usually  makes  the  best  clothes. 

Her  laundry  Although  many  an  American’s  per- 
sonal acquaintance  with  the  Chinese 
race  is  limited  to  the  laundryman  whose  gay  red- 
paper receipt  is  covered  with  “heathenish”  hiero- 
glyphics, but  whose  shirts  and  collars  are  impeccably 
white  and  shining,  the  Chinese  housekeeper  has 
learned  little  of  the  art  of  laundering.  Occasionally 
she  collects  the  household  wash  and  makes  a trip  to 
the  canal — the  same  one,  very  probably,  in  which 
she  is  accustomed  to  wash  her  rice  and  vegetables — 
and  rinses  it  out  in  the  muddy  water.  If  she  keeps 
up  with  the  times  she  may  use  soap,  but  compara- 
tively few  women  outside  of  the  cities  are  acquainted 
with  this  modern  luxury.  When  the  clothes  emerge, 
somewhat  dingier  than  before,  from  their  immersion 
in  the  canal,  they  are  dried  and  the  family  washing 
is  finished.  Nobody  but  the  tailor  uses  a flatiron. 

Her  care  of  It  is  to  her  children  that  the  Chinese 
her  children.  woman  devotes  most  of  her  time  and 
attention.  She  begrudges  her  baby  no  amount  of 
time  or  strength,  and  too  often  literally  “loves  him  to 
death,”  keeping  him  in  her  arms  all  day  long,  whether 
he  is  awake  or  asleep,  and  waking  him  innumerable 
times  through  the  night  to  feed  him.  The  appalling 
infant  mortality  in  China  is  due,  most  of  all,  to  the 


22  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

mother’s  ignorance  of  the  simplest  rules  of  health. 
The  average  mother  has  no  knowledge  of  the  use  of 
milk  in  feeding  babies,  and,  as  milk  is  in  any  case  a 
very  rare  commodity  in  a land  where  there  is  no  un- 
cultivated ground  for  pastures,  she  offers  the  tiny 
child  of  a few  months  old  anything  and  everything 
that  its  elders  are  eating.  Raw  cucumber,  skin  and 
all,  is  a not  uncommon  summer  food  for  little  chil- 
dren. The  mother  of  China  does  not  know  how 
necessary  it  is  to  keep  her  baby  and  his  clothing  clean, 
and  inasmuch  as  he  raises  his  small  voice  in  dismal 
howls  when  he  is  washed,  she  inflicts  this  discomfort 
on  him  as  seldom  as  possible.  As  for  trying  to  make 
his  surroundings  sanitary,  to  keep  flies  away  from 
him,  or  to  guard  him  from  people  suffering  from  con- 
tagious diseases — such  things  as  these  simply  never 
occur  to  her.  Many  children  come  into  the  Chinese 
home,  but  the  mother’s  arms  are  too  often  empty; 
not  because  she  does  not  care,  but  because  she  does 
not  know.  After  a recent  meeting  of  the  Mothers' 
Club  of  the  Young  Women’s  Christian  Association 
of  Tientsin,  a mother  asked  that  the  lecture  might  be 
repeated  to  a company  of  her  friends  who  had  not 
heard  it,  for,  she  said,  “My  little  boy  died  last  week 
and  if  I had  only  known  earlier  the  things  you  told 
us  today,  he  might  now  have  been  living.” 

„ _ , . , In  the  country  districts  many  Chinese 

Her  field  work.  1 i • 1 r i 1 i r 

women  help  in  the  fields,  and  fre- 
quently  show  more  skill  in  agriculture  than  in  house- 
work. Miss  Lester  of  Soochow  says  that  the  Chinese 
woman  “may  be  seen  in  the  fields  of  the  littie  land- 
scape garden  patches,  called  the  farm,  sharing  in  like 
toil  with  her  husband,  weeding  the  fields  of  young 


WORK  WITHIN  THE  HOME  23 

corn,  gathering  peanuts,  planting  the  rice,  wading 
deep  in  the  water  rescuing  the  submerged  crop,  later 
hulling  and  threshing  the  rice.  In  times  of  drought 
she  is  seen  treading  the  irrigating  pump  with  feet  all 
brown  and  burned  and  blistered,  as  before  they  had 
been  sore  and  swollen  from  her  wading  in  the  flooded 
fields  during  the  rainy  seasons.” 

Sometimes  the  work  of  the  woman  in  the  field  is 
not  by  the  side  of  her  husband.  “It  is  not  uncom- 
mon,” says  a missionary  of  Fukien,  “to  see  a man 
of  this  village,  decked  out  in  a long  gown,  satin 
shoes,  and  white  socks,  standing  on  the  bank  of  a 
paddy  field,  yelling  directions  down  to  a woman,  his 
wife,  who  is  up  to  her  knees  in  the  mud  of  the  paddy. 
She  is  patient  in  following  out  the  directions  of  her 
liege  lord,  far  more  so  than  when  similar  conditions 
concern  the  paddy  of  another  land.” 

Even  women  crippled  by  bound  feet  are  sometimes 
seen  in  outdoor  work  in  China.  “We  have  seen  the 
small-footed  women  pulling  heavy  boats  along  the 
towpaths,  or  leaning  on  their  hoes  to  rest  their  tired 
feet  while  working  in  the  fields  of  cotton,”  says 
Elizabeth  Cooper.  And  Professor  Edward  A.  Ross 
writes:  “At  Kalgan,  on  the  Mongolian  frontier,  the 
field  women  work  kneeling,  with  great  pads  over  the 
knees  to  protect  them  from  the  damp  soil.  . . In 
Shansi  and  Shensi  the  women  wield  the  sickle,  not 
stooping — that  would  hurt  their  poor  feet  too  much — - 
but  sitting  and  hitching  themselves  along  as  they 
reap.  The  women  have  to  be  carried  to  the  field  on 
wheelbarrow  or  cart,  and  their  helplessness  is  such 
that  most  of  them  never  in  their  lives  get  a mile  away 
from  the  houses  to  which  they  were  taken  as  wives.” 


24 


WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 


Her  home  China  is  no  exception  to  the  general 

industries.  rule  tha.t  practically  all  the  women  in 

families  of  meagre  incomes  add  no  inconsiderable 
amount  to  their  husbands’  earnings  by  some  form  of 
industry  which  can  be  carried  on  in  their  homes.  At 
certain  seasons  of  the  year  women  supplement  the 
family  income  by  working  in  the  tea  fields,  picking 
the  tea  leaves,  and  preparing  them  for  market.  All 
the  forms  of  sericulture,  too,  are  carried  on  by 
Chinese  women,  raising  the  silk  worm,  spinning  the 
raw  silk  into  thread,  and  weaving  the  thread  into  the 
finished  silk.  The  spinning  and  weaving  of  cotton 
is  another  profitable  industry  to  which  many  women 
give  many  hours.  Mrs.  Baird  of  Luchowfu  says  that 
in  that  district  several  of  the  old-fashioned  spinning 
wheels  which  are  used  in  this  work  are  found  even 
in  very  modest  homes,  and  that  all  the  women  and 
girls  spin  as  their  share  of  the  work  of  the  family. 
In  many  families,  she  says,  slave  girls,  purchased 
at  a price  of  from  five  to  twenty  dollars,  are  kept 
simply  for  cotton  spinning.  In  Shantung  many 
women  spend  hours  joining  together  bits  of  fur  left 
over  from  the  larger  pieces  used  in  lining  expensive 
garments.  A missionary  says  that  she  once  counted 
forty-eight  little  slivers  and  wedges  of  fur  in  a piece 
eight  inches  square.  The  women  earn  from  five  to 
twenty  cash  a day  by  such  work  (a  cash  is  about 
one-twentieth  of  a cent)  and  furnish  their  own  thread. 

Many  straw  products  can  be  made  in  the  home 
between  the  cooking  of  meals  and  feeding  of  babies, 
and  the  baskets,  matting,  straw  sandals,  etc.,  which 
are  so  widely  used  in  China  are  often  the  work  of 
women’s  fingers.  Many  Chinese  women  not  only 


HOUSEWIVES  OF  INDIA 


WORK  WITHIN  THE  HOME 


25 

make  the  cloth  shoes  and  stockings  for  their  own 
families,  but  for  sale.  There  is  also,  alas,  a never- 
failing  market  for  the  materials  for  idol  worship, 
such  as  the  incredible  quantities  of  paper  money 
which  are  annually  burned  as  offerings  to  the  spirits 
of  the  dead;  and  the  making  of  these  furnishes  em- 
ployment to  countless  Chinese  women,  since  no 
machinery  is  needed  and  the  work  can  be  done  at 
home. 

It  is  highly  unwise  to  make  any  generalizations 
about  the  women  of  China,  for  what  is  true  in  one 
part  of  that  great  country  may  not  hold  for  another 
section.  But  it  is  probably  safe  to  say  that,  in  general, 
the  woman  of  China  who  is  not  engaged  in  some 
domestic  industry,  and  has  no  responsibility  beyond 
the  care  of  her  house  and  children,  is  doing  very 
little,  and  not  doing  that  little  well. 

One  who  has  long  lived  in  the  midst  of  Chinese 
women  passes  this  severe  judgment  on  them:  “Ex- 
cept among  the  very  poor,  where  the  women  help 
to  make  a living,  they  are  very  idle  and  inefficient 
members  of  the  family.  Carrying  the  babies  about, 
and  gossiping  with  each  other  occupies  the  greater 
part  of  their  time,  and  as  a consequence  of  idleness 
quarrels  among  the  women  are  frequent.”  No  less 
condemning  is  the  comment  of  a discerning  traveler, 
who  after  weeks  of  journeying  through  the  interior 
of  China  remarked,  “I  am  struck  with  the  fact  that 
everything  that  the  Chinese  men  do  is  done  well,  and 
everything  that  the  Chinese  women  do  is  done 
poorly.” 


Her  ability. 


Is  this  because  the  Chinese  women 
are  inherently  lazy?  Hardly  that. 


26 


WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 


They  belong  to  that  race  whose  capacity  for  long- 
continued,  patiently  endured  drudgery,  has  made 
them  the  despair  of  the  laborers  of  any  other  race 
with  whom  they  are  brought  into  competition.  Is  it 
because  they  lack  intelligence  or  ability?  A woman 
with  eighteen  years  of  experience  in  an  American 
college  gymnasium  says  that  she  has  never  had 
classes  which  learned  so  quickly,  and  acquired 
proficiency  so  rapidly  as  those  she  is  holding  among 
Chinese  women  today.  And  a letter,  on  my  desk, 
from  the  registrar  of  a leading  American  boarding 
school  for  girls,  reports  that  two  little  Chinese 
students,  fresh  from  China  and  handicapped  by  a 
foreign  language,  have  acquired  the  highest  grade, 
during  the  past  semester,  obtained  by  any  girls  in  the 
school.  And  wherever  in  China  the  Christian  schools 
have  gone,  where  it  has  been  possible  for  little  feet 
and  minds  to  develop  normally,  hundreds  of  homes 
as  ideal  as  any  to  be  found  in  our  own  country 
are  bearing  incontrovertible  testimony  to  the  fact 
that  there  are  nowhere  more  efficient  home-keepers, 
more  wise  and  skillful  wives  and  mothers  than  the 
Chinese  women  who  have  had  a chance. 

Homes  that  Not  all  houses  in  China  are  squalid, 
are  different.  Said  one  Chinese  home-maker,  whose 
house  was  so  shiningly  clean  and  in  such  beautiful 
order  that  it  had  awakened  the  enthusiasm  of  a 
visiting  Englishwoman:  “My  Father  God  and  Jesus 
Christ  are  always  coming  and  going,  in  and  out  here. 
Would  it  do  to  have  the  house  other  than  tidy?” 

And  not  all  Chinese  wives  are  idle  and  quarrel- 
some, “ Sz-mo ,”  said  a Chinese  to  a missionary  friend, 
of  the  Christian  wife  he  had  lost,  “I  have  not  one 


WORK  WITHIN  THE  HOME  27 

garment  she  did  not  make,  and  she  made  all  for  the 
children,  too.  She  never  said  ‘half  a word’  that 
caused  me  sorrow!” 

Nor  is  the  mother  love  of  all  Chinese  women  un- 
controlled. ‘‘He  was  as  lively  as  a cricket,”  a mis- 
sionary said  of  the  three-year-old  son  of  a Chinese 
pastor,  whom  she  had  often  seen  in  church  with  his 
mother,  “but  his  mother  never  grew  impatient,  only 
put  her  arm  about  him  tenderly  when  the  restless 
little  body  moved  around  too  much  for  other  folks’ 
comfort,  and  drew  him  to  her  till  his  little  head  found 
quiet  on  her  maternal  shoulder.  It  was  a lovely 
picture  of  mother  and  child  that  I often  found  joy 
in  looking  upon.”  One  day,  after  two  days  of  violent 
illness,  the  little  son  died.  In  the  barren  little  grave- 
yard gathered  not  only  Christian  friends,  but  a 
wondering,  ragged  crowd  of  children,  who  were  not 
accustomed  to  the  sight  of  little  bodies  being  laid 
away  with  such  reverence.  Just  as  the  rough  little 
coffin  was  about  to  be  lowered  into  the  earth  there 
was  a sudden  movement,  and  “the  mother  with 
her  efficient  step  and  sweetly  maternal  eyes  went 
over  near  to  the  ragged  little  crowd,  and  spoke  to 
them  a message,  new,  indeed,  to  the  starved  little 
souls,  of  the  love  of  Jesus  for  little  children,  so  tender 
that  sometimes  He  took  them  away  from  this  earth 
to  be  with  Him.  Her  little  boy,  she  said,  had  loved 
his  father  and  mother  and  obeyed  them,  and  loved 
God  and  tried  to  do  what  was  right.  When  he  went 
to  bed  he  offered  prayer  to  God,  when  he  ate  his  food 
he  gave  thanks.  Now  he  had  gone  to  be  with  the  God 
who  had  loved  him.  Would  not  these,  his  little 
brothers,  also  love  their  fathers  and  mothers  and 


28  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

love  God,  that  they  might  also  go  some  day  to  be 
with  Him?  With  the  teacher’s  instinct  she  repeated 
the  little  sermon,  and  then  stepped  back  quietly  to 
her  place,  as  unconscious  of  having  done  anything 
unusual  as  if  she  had  been  on  one  of  her  accustomed 
visits  to  the  poor.” 

Bound  feet,  bound  minds,  too  early  marriages — - 
these  things,  not  any  inherent  lack  in  the  Chinese 
woman  herself,  are  responsible  for  the  inefficiency 
of  her  work  as  a home-maker. 

in  the  field  The  traveler  through  Japan  in  spring 
in  japan.  or  ear]y  summer  is  certain  to  take 

away  a vivid  picture  of  deep  browns,  pale  greens, 
and  bright  blues.  Wherever  he  goes  he  is  sure  to 
pass  field  after  field  of  rich  brown  soil,  in  which 
little  blue-clad  figures  are  bending  unceasingly,  ankle- 
deep  in  the  mud,  kimonos  rolled  knee  high,  lower 
limbs  encased  in  tight  blue  trousers.  Sometimes  all 
these  blue  figures  wear  broad  sashes,  or  obis,  fastened 
in  the  back,  and  then  the  traveler  knows  that 
they  are  all  women.  In  other  districts  sashless 
figures  work  beside  those  with  obis — but  always  the 
women  are  there.  The  cultivation  of  rice  is  no 
pleasant  and  painless  pastime,  and  it  is  one  in  which 
the  women  of  Japan,  whether  they  work  alone,  or 
with  their  men  folks,  take  the  heaviest  end;  for  the 
brunt  of  the  stooping  falls  to  them.  All  day  long  in 
broiling  sun  or  pelting  rain  they  stand  ankle-deep  in 
the  evil-smelling  mire,  stooping  almost  double  to  set 
out  the  tiny  rice  plants  in  regular  rows.  The  ex- 
haustion is  so  great  by  the  time  all  the  fields  are 
planted  that  the  entire  village  takes  a rest.  But 
there  can  be  no  long  time  of  idleness,  for  at  intervals 


WORK  WITHIN  THE  HOME 


29 

of  a few  days  each  the  whole  paddy  field  must  be 
repeatedly  “puddled,”  which  is  the  expressive 
descriptive  term  given  to  the  process  of  stirring  up 
the  mud  with  the  hands  in  order  that  weeds  may  not 
be  able  to  take  root,  or  the  soil  become  caked  around 
the  young  rice  roots.  This  must  be  done  at  stated 
intervals,  no  matter  what  the  weather  may  be,  and 
it  is  the  little  blue  figures  with  the  obis  who  are  al- 
ways the  ones  chiefly  responsible  for  this  most  un- 
pleasant and  back-breaking  job.  Indeed,  Dr.  Gulick 
tells  us  that  the  women  are  so  important  during  the 
rice-planting  season,  that  its  days  are  known  as 
“the  women’s  daimyo  days.” 

Harvest  time,  too,  is  a busy  season  for  the  Japanese 
farmer’s  wife  and  daughter.  They  share  in  all  the 
labor  of  bringing  in  and  threshing  the  rice,  barley, 
wheat,  millet,  etc.;  for  Japanese  agriculture  is  so 
largely  a hand  process  that  at  the  seasons  of  special 
pressure  every  possible  worker  must  be  called  on. 
Tea-picking  time,  also,  is  one  which  sees  them  con- 
tinuously in  the  field. 

The  Japanese  Of  course,  the  care  of  the  home 
home-  must  go  on  through  rice-planting,  tea- 

picking, and  harvest  time,  but  the  Japanese  house, 
especially  the  little  country  home,  is  very  simple, 
and  is  easily  kept  as  clean  as  even  the  Japanese 
standards  of  cleanliness  require.  The  inner  partitions 
are  sliding  paper  screens,  and  one  or  two  chests  of 
drawers  constitute  the  entire  furnishings.  The  beds 
are  simply  soft  futons  or  mattresses,  which  are 
rolled  up  and  stored  in  a closet  by  day,  and  the  only 
seat  a Japanese  requires  is  his  own  long-suffering 
heels.  Yet  the  household  tasks  of  the  Japanese  wife 


30  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

and  mother  are  by  no  means  inconsiderable.  Three 
meals  a day  come  around  as  often  on  the  other  side 
of  the  Pacific  as  here,  and  men  folk — especially 
farmers — and  growing  children  are  sure  to  be  blessed 
with  good  appetites  on  either  side  of  the  globe. 
Moreover,  the  Japanese  mother  is  not  content  unless 
her  little  flock  are  always  well  scrubbed,  and  their  gay 
little  kimonos  fresh  and  clean.  But  to  keep  the 
family  clothing  in  the  state  which  her  ideal  of  clean- 
liness demands,  means  a constant  making  and  un- 
making of  garments,  big  and  little,  for  each  kimono 
must  be  unmade  to  be  washed,  and  firmly  basted  up 
again  when  it  is  dry. 

Domestic indus  Nevertheless,  in  spite  of  constant 
tries  m japan.  household  duties,  many  Japanese  wom- 

en and  girls  in  the  country  districts  find  time  between 
the  busy  seasons  of  agricultural  work  to  carry  on 
some  form  of  domestic  industry.  The  rearing  of  silk 
worms,  reeling  of  silk,  spinning  of  thread,  and  weav- 
ing of  silk  and  cotton  fabrics  furnish  many  hundreds 
of  women  and  girls  with  profitable  means  of  sup- 
plementing the  family  income. 

In  the  towns,  too,  many  Japanese  women  help  to 
add  to  the  family  income,  in  addition  to  their  house- 
hold duties,  either  by  sharing  in  their  husbands’ 
work,  or  by  carrying  on  some  home  industry  of  their 
own.  Weavers’  wives  and  daughters  become  expert 
weavers,  and  the  women  in  the  merchant’s  family 
keep  shop,  while  he  peddles  his  goods  from  house  to 
house  or  lays  in  new  stock.  But  the  women  folk  in 
the  families  of  carpenters,  masons,  and  men  in 
similar  trades,  unable  to  share  in  their  husbands’ 
tasks,  find  occupation  in  braiding  straw,  making 


WORK  WITHIN  THE  HOME 


3* 

fans,  embroidering,  and  fashioning  the  many  artistic 
trifles  which  make  Japanese  shops  so  fascinating. 
Some  of  them  earn  no  inconsiderable  amount  as  hair- 
dressers— in  fact,  Japan  has  a proverb  to  the  effect 
that  a hairdresser’s  husband  has  nothing  to  do. 

The  woman  To  find  the  woman  of  the  Orient 
of  leisure.  whose  hands  are  idle,  whose  days  are 

spent  as  a consumer  and  not  a producer,  you  must 
go  not  to  the  country  districts  or  villages,  not  to  the 
home  of  small  means  in  town  or  city,  nor  to  the 
middle-class  family.  You  will  find  her  over  there, 
as  you  are  too  often  able  to  find  her  in  your  own  land, 
in  the  homes  of  wealth — and  when  you  have  found 
her,  you  will  pity  her  most  of  all. 

_ . . She  is  in  the  harem  of  Mohammedan 

In  the  harem.  . . . . , . . . 

countries,  with  no  responsibility 
through  the  unending  hours  of  the  day,  save  to  fur- 
nish her  lord  amusement  when  he  requires  it.  Not 
even  the  supervision  of  her  own  house,  or  the  care 
of  her  own  children  is  required  of  her.  “I  often 
asked  whether  they  were  not  happy,”  says  a mis- 
sionary, of  these  women,  ‘‘having  all  the  comforts  of  a 
grand  harem,  good  food,  marvellous  silk  and  satin 
costumes,  husbands  who  were  comparatively  good 
to  them;  and  the  answer  was,  ‘How  can  we  be  happy 
locked  up  like  this!  We  want  to  see  the  river  and  the 
gardens  and  men  and  women  as  you  do.’  It  showed 
me  that  in  these  hearts  there  existed  the  longing  for 
something  better  and  more  beautiful  than  the  lazy 
mind-and-soul-wrecking  comfort  of  the  harem.  Im- 
agine yourself  sitting  in  a yard  of  twenty  by  thirty 
feet,  with  walls  surrounding  it  thirty  feet  high,  and 
not  a peephole  in  them.  The  glorious  sun  and  the 


32  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

blue  sky  suggest  that  there  is  a beautiful  world  out- 
side. But  here  Moslem  women  have  to  spend  a life- 
time.” 

Behind  She  is  behind  the  purdah  in  India, 

the  purdah.  too,  Oriental  woman  who  does  not 

work,  too  little  educated  to  find  resources  in  books, 
unable  to  go  out  into  the  world  except  behind  closed 
curtains,  unable  to  invite  the  world  to  come  in  to 
her,  living,  as  one  of  the  purdanashins  pathetically 
puts  it,  “like  a frog  in  the  bottom  of  a deep  well.” 
“The  saddest  thing  I ever  heard,”  a friend  from 
India  told  me,  “was  said  by  a lady  of  India  who  had 
begged  an  English  missionary  to  teach  her  English. 
‘When  shall  I come?’  the  missionary  asked.  ‘You 
may  come  at  any  time,’  was  the  answer.  ‘/  have 
nothing  to  do.'  ” 

in  the  official’s  In  China,  too,  you  will  find  the  woman 
family.  of  leisure  in  the  homes  of  wealthy 

officials  or  merchants,  waited  upon  by  servants  and 
slaves  innumerable,  but  with  little  to  fill  her  mind 
save  bitterness  at  the  thought  of  the  secondary  wives 
whom  her  husband’s  wealth  has  enabled  him  to  take. 
“They  sit  in  their  homes  with  nothing  to  do,”  says  a 
Shanghai  missionary,  “and  they  are  tired  of  idleness. 
Often  they  begin  to  gamble  to  pass  the  time  away.” 
“What  would  you  ask  for  if  you  could  have  what  you 
wanted  most?”  someone  asked  one  of  these  women  in 
Shantung.  “To  become  a dog  in  the  next  life,”  she 
answered,  wistfully,  “for  then  I could  go  outside  the 
courtyard  whenever  I wished.” 

in  Japanese  The  woman  without  work  is  in  Japan, 
homes  of  wealth.  too,  possibly  trying  to  fill  her  days 
with  the  gayeties  of  modern  Japanese  society,  but 


BREAKING  STONES  IS  A WOMAN’S  TASK  IN  CHINA 


WORK  WITHIN  THE  HOME  33 

more  probably  watching  with  pathetic  but  un- 
protesting eyes  the  widening  of  the  gulf  between  her, 
whose  life  is  still  governed  by  the  feudal  ideals  of  the 
middle  ages,  and  her  progressive  European-garbed 
husband,  and  the  children  who,  day  after  day,  in  the 
modern  public  school,  are  learning  to  regard  as  the 
veriest  commonplace,  knowledge  of  which  she  never 
dreamed. 

One  could  not  blame  the  Oriental  woman  of  leisure 
if  she  found  it  hard  not  to  envy  the  far  freer  and  more 
varied  life  of  the  hard-working  wife  of  farmer  or 
artisan.  The  poorer  woman  goes  to  bed  at  night 
much  more  weary  in  body,  it  is  true;  but  the  face  of 
the  woman  of  leisure  shows  the  marks  of  weariness 
of  spirit  far  earlier.  Broadly  speaking,  the  lower 
one  goes  in  the  social  scale  in  the  Orient,  the  more 
nearly  is  the  wife  on  an  equality  with  her  husband. 
Her  work  is  as  important  and  valuable  as  his,  in  most 
of  the  poorer  families,  and  enables  her  both  to  re- 
spect herself  and  to  command  the  respect  of  others. 
She  has,  on  the  whole,  a far  better  chance  for  hap- 
piness and  the  development  of  individuality  than 
the  woman  who  is  her  husband’s  plaything,  or 
servant,  and  the  mother  of  his  children,  but  never  his 
companion  in  labor  or  leisure. 

Yet  within  the  last  few  years  the  doors  into  a life 
thrilling  beyond  their  most  daring  dreams,  have 
suddenly  swung  open  for  some  of  these  women  of 
leisure.  They  have  learned  of  the  women  of  western 
lands  who  are  interested  in  and  busy  about  many 
things  beyond  the  four  walls  of  their  homes;  and  the 
political,  educational,  and  social  changes  which  have 
been  sweeping  through  Asia  during  the  first  years  of 


34  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

the  new  century  have  brought  to  the  women  of  many 
an  Oriental  city  a freedom  hitherto  undreamed  of. 
What  use  will  they  make  of  their  long  leisure  hours 
in  the  new  life  that  is  opening  up  before  them?  Will 
they  make  them  as  truly  working  hours  as  are  the 
hours  the  sturdy  little  peasant  woman  spends  in  the 
rice  paddy  or  kitchen,  or  will  they  fill  them  with  new 
forms  of  pleasure  seeking?  Will  home  and  com- 
munity and  country  be  made  finer  and  stronger  by 
such  united  service  as  was  impossible  for  their 
mothers,  or  will  they  come  together  merely  to  “kill 
time”  in  new  and  often  dangerous  ways?  The  answer 
is  not  yet,  and  what  it  will  be  depends  largely  on  us. 


WORK.  WITHIN  THE  HOME 


35 


Christian  Missions  and  the  Oriental  Home 

“From  the  very  beginning  of  Christian  missions,  the  trans- 
formation of  home  life  has  been  one  of  the  most  striking  effects 
of  missionary  endeavor,”  said  a thoughtful  student  of  missions, 
recently.  “This  has  been  accomplished  in  many  ways,  and  by 
many  agencies — the  preacher,  the  home  visitor,  the  doctor  and 
nurse,  and  the  educator.  Each  has  taken  a part  in  building  up 
new  ideals  of  family  life,  in  abolishing  infant  murder,  child 
marriage,  polygamy,  frequent  divorce,  degradation  of  women, 
and  many  other  deep-rooted  customs  that  are  prevalent  in  non- 
Christian  lands.” 

If  it  be  true  that  “actions  speak  louder  than  words,”  it  is 
probably  safe  to  say  that  no  missionary  agency  has  done  more 
to  change  the  home  life  of  the  Orient  than  the  missionary’s 
home.  What  the  social  settlement  house  is  to  the  crowded  slum 
districts  of  a great  city,  this,  and  even  more  than  this,  is  the 
Christian  home  set  in  the  midst  of  people  to  whom  home  life, 
in  any  true  sense  of  the  word,  has  been  unknown.  In  mission 
schools  the  young  people  of  the  Orient  are  being  taught  of  the 
Christian  ideals  of  home  and  family  life;  and  in  the  Christian 
home  they  see  a living  example  of  the  fruits  of  love  between 
husband  and  wife;  mutual  respect  and  deference;  and  patience, 
wisdom,  and  control  in  the  training  and  discipline  of  the  children. 
A missionary  home-maker  feelingly  remarked  not  long  ago  that 
a suitable  epitaph  for  the  tomb-stones  of  many  missionary  wives 
would  be  “Given  to  Hospitality.”  But  it  is  just  because  mis- 
sionary wives  have  counted  their  homes  not  theirs  to  keep,  but 
theirs  to  share,  and  have  kept  their  doors  ever  open,  that  there 
are  so  many  homes  in  the  Orient  today,  as  beautifully  and 
genuinely  Christian  as  any  in  our  own  country.  “Many  and 
many  a student  in  college  or  theological  seminary  receives  his 
first  and  only  training  in  Christian  courtesy  and  etiquette  at  the 
missionary  table.”  And  many  and  many  a puzzled  wife  and 
mother  gains  new  wisdom  and  new  courage  because  the  mission- 
ary wife  is  never  too  busy  to  sit  down  and  listen  sympathetically. 
“The  world-wide  experience  of  wifehood  and  motherhood”  gives 
the  homemaker  an  entree  to  the  inmost  lives  of  many  women, 
which  no  one  else  has;  and  the  things  which  they  have  seen  and 


WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 


36 

heard  in  her  home  have  made  all  of  life  different  for  many 
Oriental  women. 

Another  missionary  agency  which  has  transformed  Oriental 
home  life  is  the  Christian  school.  Says  a missionary  teacher, 
“Can  we  point  to  any  girls  whom  our  schools  have  developed 
into  the  kind  of  women  we  long  to  see,  those  who  ‘open  their 
mouths  with  wisdom  and  in  whose  tongue  is  the  law  of  kindness, 
who  look  well  to  the  ways  of  their  household,  and  eat  not  the 
bread  of  idleness?’  I should  like  to  take  you  into  a little  home 
I know  in  Peking  where  the  young  mother  seems  to  me  the  very 
embodiment  of  these  words.  I have  watched  carefully  her 
treatment  of  her  children,  and  I have  never  seen  a foreigner  who 
seemed  to  me  more  conscientious,  judicious,  and  self-controlled. 
When  the  children  are  cross  or  mischievous  she  doesn’t  shriek 
at  them  and  threaten  to  throw  them  in  a pit  of  yellow  earth. 
Why  not?  That  is  the  style  of  home-training  which  she  was 
accustomed  to  from  her  mother,  a most  unreasonable  termagant. 
Simply  because  several  years  in  a boarding  school  developed  in 
her  refined  and  womanly  qualities.  Why  is  it  that  the  clothing, 
stockings,  and  shoes  of  her  husband,  herself,  and  children  are 
always  neat  and  well  made?  Her  mother  cannot  sew  at  all  well, 
much  less  teach  her  daughters.  Because  she  was  taught  in 
school  to  sew  and  embroider  until  now  she  does  exquisite  needle- 
work. Why,  a few  months  ago,  did  she  punish  her  little  boy  of 
three  and  a half  years,  because  he  had  told  a lie?  Her  mother, 
though  a Christian,  tells  lies  herself.  Because  the  teaching 
about  truthfulness  that  she  had  received  in  the  school  had 
entered  into  the  very  bone  and  sinew  of  her  nature.” 

Such  Oriental  homemakers  as  this  are  being  multiplied  many- 
fold  by  the  Christian  schools  of  every  mission  field. 

The  kindergarten  furnishes  a sure  access  to  homes.  The 
stories  that  the  little  folks  tell  of  their  teacher  and  what  they 
are  learning  from  her,  assure  her  a hearty  welcome  when  she 
goes  to  visit  the  mother;  and  she  has  numberless  opportunities 
to  influence  home  life.  Many  kindergartners  are  accomplishing 
marvels  through  mothers’  meetings,  which  meet  at  regular 
intervals  to  discuss  the  various  problems  of  child  life  and  child 
training.  One  ingenious  American  missionary  in  Korea,  recently 
organized  a “Better  Babies’  Contest”  at  which  prizes  were 


W®RK  WITHIN  THE  HOME 


37 

awarded  to  babies  from  one  month  to  five  years  old,  according 
to  standards  of  normal  development,  cleanliness,  and  freedom 
from  disease. 

The  Bible  woman,  too,  is  playing  her  part  in  bringing  new  life 
and  new  ideals  to  the  home  of  the  Orient.  Often  she  may  enter 
doors  which  do  not  yet  swing  open  for  the  foreign  missionary. 
She  goes  from  zenana  to  zenana  and  house  to  house,  teaching 
the  women  and  girls  to  read,  telling  them  the  story  of  the  Good 
Tidings,  winning  their  confidence  and  friendship,  and  gradually 
leading  them  into  that  life  more  abundant  which  her  Master 
came  to  bring.  Wholly  new  ideals  and  purposes  have  sprung  up 
in  home  after  home  where  these  humble,  consecrated  workers 
have  patiently  gone. 

Truly  it  is  good  to  have  a share  in  the  work  which  mission 
homes,  mission  schools,  and  Christian  workers  are  doing,  which 
results  in  so  beautiful  and  fair  a thing  as  the  Christian  home  of  the 
Orient. 


38 


WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 


QUESTIONS  ON  CHAPTER  I. 

Aim  of  study:  To  bring  a knowledge  of  the  home  life  of  the 
women  of  the  Orient,  and  to  create  a realization  of  the  power  of 
Christianity  to  transform  the  homes  of  the  East. 

1.  In  what  kinds  of  work  are  the  great  mass  of  the  women 
of  the  Orient  spending  their  days? 

2.  What  is  the  life  of  the  wife  and  mother  of  the  average 
home  in  a Moslem  land? 

3.  How  does  she  supplement  the  family  income? 

4.  Does  your  mission  board  maintain  any  industrial  schools 
in  Moslem  countries? 

5.  How  have  missionaries  in  the  Near  East  enabled  thou- 
sands of  women  to  save  their  lives  in  times  of  famine  and  massa- 
cre? 

6.  Why  do  the  women  of  the  poorest  families  in  India 
spend  so  little  time  on  household  tasks? 

7.  Why  do  the  mothers  of  India  give  their  little  girls  such 
thorough  training  in  household  tasks  while  they  are  still  little 
more  than  babies? 

8.  What  is  your  estimate  of  the  efficiency  of  the  average 
woman  of  China  as  a home-maker  and  mother? 

9.  What  is  your  estimate  of  her  natural  ability  ? 

10.  How  do  you  account  for  the  fact  that  the  Chinese  woman 
is  “the  poorest  housekeeper  in  the  Orient”  ? 

11.  How  do  you  explain  the  difference  between  the  Chinese 
homes  described  by  a missionary  as  “as  ideal  as  any  I have  seen 
in  America,”  and  the  average  home  of  China? 

12.  How  is  the  work  of  Mission  Boards  reaching  the  home 
life  of  the  Orient? 

13.  Which  form  of  missionary  work  seems  to  you  to  have  the 
greatest  influence  upon  home  life? 

14.  If  you  were  a woman  of  Japan  which  would  you  prefer 
to  be,  the  wife  of  a peasant,  or  a “woman  of  leisure”?  Why? 

1 5.  What  changes  are  coming  in  the  thought  and  life  of  many 
Oriental  women  of  leisure  ? 

16.  Do  these  changes  seem  to  you  to  bring  new  responsibili- 
ties and  opportunities  to  our  Mission  Boards? 


V. 


CHAPTER  II. 


Suggested  Scripture  Reading. 

Christ’s  Call  to  the  Heavy  Laden.  Matt,  ii:  28-30. 

The  Wage  Earners. 

The  Coolie  Women: 

Building  roads  and  weeding  crops  in  India. 

Hauling  coal  and  poling  ferry  boats  in  China. 

Coaling  trans-Pacific  steamers  and  building  bridges  in  Japan. 

The  New  Life  of  the  Factory: 

In  Moslem  Lands: 

The  factories  are  few  as  yet.  But  women  work  long  hours 
for  small  pay  in  some  industries. 

In  India: 

The  woman  in  industry  is  a very  present  factor. 

Her  life  in  the  cotton  mills  of  Bombay. 

In  China: 

Industries  are  developing  rapidly,  and,  as  there  is  no  unify- 
ing legislation,  conditions  of  work  vary  greatly  in  differ- 
ent factories. 

The  weaving  establishments. 

A uniform  factory. 

The  Shanghai  mills. 

In  Japan: 

More  than  half  of  the  great  army  of  industrial  workers 
are  women  and  girls. 

The  hours  they  work  and  the  pay  they  get. 

The  factories  they  work  in. 

The  dormitories  they  sleep  in. 

The  price  they  pay. 

Why  they  come. 

Why  they  stay. 

Factories  that  are  different. 

The  only  solution. 


Copyright  by  Underwood  and  Underwood , N.  Y. 


TWO  OF  INDIA'S  PORTERS 


CHAPTER  II. 


THE  WAGE  EARNERS 

The  “coolie  When  poverty  is  most  bitter  there  is 
woman”  m India,  little  or  no  distinction  between  man’s 
work  and  woman’s.  In  India,  where  the  average  in- 
come is  ten  dollars  a year,  where  millions  live  on  one 
meagre  meal  a day,  the  woman  of  the  family  where 
the  income  is  the  smallest  and  the  supply  of  food  the 
scantest  cannot  stop  to  question  whether  or  not  the 
work  she  can  get  is  adapted  to  her  frail  body;  or 
whether  or  not  it  takes  her  away  from  her  home. 
She  must  take  it  or  starve.  So  it  is  that  in  India 
many  of  the  women  of  the  laboring  classes  leave 
their  homes  at  sunrise  and  work  until  sunset  at  any 
work  which  is  possible  for  them.  If  you  have  been 
in  India,  you  have  doubtless  been  struck  with  ad- 
miration at  the  smooth  firm  roads  over  which  auto- 
mobiles bowl  as  smoothly  as  on  any  western  boule- 
vard. But  unless  you  saw  one  in  the  process  of  con- 
struction, you  may  not  have  known  that  the  earth 
and  concrete  used  in  the  making  were  very  probably 
carried  in  baskets  on  the  heads  of  the  women  of  the 
country.  You  will  find  the  women  of  India,  too, 
where  buildings  are  being  erected,  bearing  away  the 
earth  from  the  excavations  on  their  patient  heads, 
carrying  the  bricks,  fetching  water  and  helping  to 
mix  the  mortar,  and  once  in  a long  time  slipping 


42  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

away  to  give  hasty  attention  to  the  needs  of  the  tiny 
brown  baby  who,  in  his  little  basket,  has  been  stowed 
away  in  some  corner  or  under  a bush. 

In  the  country  districts  these  women  day  laborers, 
or  coolie  women,  as  they  are  usually  termed,  work 
for  the  farmers,  helping  to  plant  the  rice,  and  usually 
doing  all  the  weeding  of  the  crops.  They  are  almost 
always  to  be  found  working  in  groups,  or  with  some 
older  women,  for  the  sake  of  protection. 

The  wages  the  coolie  woman  receives  for  hauling 
bricks  all  day  long  in  the  blistering  heat  of  the  most 
unbearably  hot  cities  on  the  face  of  the  globe,  or  for 
bending  double  over  the  little  rice  plants  hour  after 
hour  in  the  unshaded  fields  of  the  tropics,  equal  a 
little  more  than  half  that  of  the  man.  She  receives 
three,  or  possibly  four,  cents  a day. 

In  riiina  The  trave^er  who  reaches  China  from 

India,  and  stops  at  Hong  Kong  and 
Canton,  will  very  probably  conclude  that  in  China, 
too,  the  women  of  the  poorer  homes  are  generally 
engaged  in  coolie  service.  He  can  scarcely  have 
failed  to  meet  the  little  blue-trousered  women,  who 
carry  such  incredible  loads  of  wood,  coal,  and  other 
supplies,  fastened  to  both  ends  of  the  bamboo  pole 
across  their  shoulders,  up  the  steep  road,  which  leads 
to  the  villas  and  hotels  of  the  Peak.  And  at  Canton, 
when  he  wanted  to  cross  the  river,  he  was  very 
probably  ferried  across  in  a slipper  boat,  briskly 
poled  by  a sturdy  “boat  woman.”  Such  tasks  as 
these  can  be  performed  by  the  “big-footed”  women 
of  south  China,  for  there  the  feet  of  little  girls  of 
poor  families  are  rarely  bound.  But  as  he  journeys 
onward,  he  will  find  that  there  are  many  women. 


THE  WAGE  EARNERS 


43 

even  in  very  poor  homes,  whose  maimed  feet  make 
hard  physical  labor  an  impossibility  for  them,  and 
who,  if  they  are  to  supplement  the  family  income, 
must  find  some  way  of  doing  it  inside  the  home,  since 
they  are  virtually  imprisoned  within  its  walls. 

In  Japan  The  §^mPSe  JaPan  which  the 

traveler  coming  from  India  and  China 
receives  is  Nagasaki,  and  very  probably  he  gains  his 
first  view  of  the  women  of  the  country  before  ever 
he  leaves  the  steamer.  It  is  one  not  easily  forgotten. 
As  he  looks  over  the  ship’s  side  he  sees  dozens  of 
flat-bottomed  boats  loaded  with  big  pieces  of  soft 
cannel  coal  being  made  fast  alongside  of  his  steamer. 
Scaffolds  are  quickly  put  up  by  means  of  rope,  and 
then  the  day-long  task  of  coaling  the  huge  trans- 
pacific liner  begins.  Numbers  of  little  blue-clad 
Japanese  women,  with  towels  bound  over  their 
heads  to  keep  out  the  coal  dust,  a number  of  them 
with  tiny  babies  bound  to  their  backs,  take  their 
places  on  the  scaffolds,  and  catch  the  coal-laden 
baskets  which  the  men  toss  to  them  from  the  barges. 
Hour  after  hour  they  stand  there,  until  one  wonders 
how  their  strength  can  possibly  endure  the  strain  of 
such  long-continued  and  strenuous  effort.  It  is 
sometimes  late  at  night  before  the  mammoth  coal 
bins  of  the  great  steamers  are  full.  Only  then  do  the 
patient  little  coalers  take  their  wages  of  about  30  or 
40  sen  (a  sen  is  worth  about  half  a cent  in  our  money) 
and  go  home. 

A recent  visitor  to  Japan  says  that  the  first  women 
she  saw  after  landing  were  “having  a bridge  party.” 
“Sounds  inviting,”  she  says,  “but  it  wasn’t.  About 
twenty  of  them  were  driving  piles  for  a new  bridge. 


44 


WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 


The  sun  was  scorching,  the  timbers  enormous,  and 
the  man  overseer  was  abusing  them.”  Again  in 
Nikko  this  traveler  saw  from  a distance  a long  line 
of  stooped  figures  climbing  the  steep  bank  of  the  river 
Daiya.  “On  coming  nearer,”  she  says,  “we  saw  that 
they  were  old,  old  women,  wrinkled  and  gray, 
carrying  barrels — not  baskets,  but  barrels  of  stone 
from  the  river  bed  to  the  road.” 

In  her  classic  book  on  Japanese  Girls  and  Women, 
Miss  Bacon  tells  of  a camping  trip  which  she  made  up 
the  sacred  mountain  of  Hiyei  Zan,  where  her  baggage, 
consisting  of  “two  closely  packed  hampers,  as  large 
as  ordinary  steamer  trunks,”  was  lifted  lightly  to  the 
heads  of  two  women  from  the  village  of  Yase  at  the 
foot  of  the  mountain,  and  “poised  on  little  straw  pads, 
carried  easily  up  the  narrow  trail,  made  doubly 
difficult  by  low-hanging  branches,  to  the  camp,  a 
distance  of  three  or  four  miles.”  The  women  of  this 
little  village  are  known  throughout  Japan  for  their 
remarkable  physical  development,  but  women  burden 
bearers  are  not  limited  to  that  section  of  the  country. 
Changes  wrought  For  the  women  in  the  poorer  families 
by  modem  of  the  Orient  to  go  out  from  their 

machinery.  homes  to  work  at  such  tasks  as  these 

is  no  new  thing.  But  the  last  few  years  have  brought 
to  many  women  in  some  parts  of  the  Orient  a work 
outside  the  home,  which  is  new;  and  it  is  undoubtedly 
safe  to  say  that  the  Orient’s  rapidly  developing  in- 
dustrial interests  will,  in  the  near  future,  call  many 
more  thousands  of  the  women  and  girls  of  the  East 
away  from  the  tasks  within  the  home  about  which 
they  are  now  busy,  to  a no  less  arduous  and  very 
different  kind  of  work.  The  introduction  of  modern 


THE  WAGE  EARNERS 


45 

machinery  has  already  wrought  startling  and  far- 
reaching  changes  in  the  lives  of  many  women  in  the 
Orient.  And  although  there  are  many  parts  of  the 
East  which  know  little  or  nothing  of  machinery, 
where  the  articles  which  women  make  are  still  made 
wholly  by  hand  in  their  own  homes,  yet  the  most 
casual  and  superficial  reading  of  the  signs  of  the  times 
leaves  no  room  for  doubt  that  “the  woman  in  in- 
dustry” will  before  very  long  be  as  real  and  im- 
portant a factor  in  the  life  of  the  Orient  as  she  is  in 
this  country  and  Europe. 

In  Mohamme-  Very  few  of  the  women  of  Moslem 
dan  lands.  lands  are  as  yet  constituting  an  “in- 

dustrial problem.”  A missionary  of  Oorfa,  Turkey, 
says:  “I  have  to  think  hard  to  make  myself  believe 
that  there  is  a single  real  industry  for  them  (the 
women)  to  earn  a living,  excepting  handwork,  laces, 
handkerchiefs,  etc.  . . . There  are  no  mills,  no  fac- 
tories, no  offices,  no  industries  save  the  lace  making.” 
Yet  in  1914,  the  Woman  s World , of  Constanti- 
nople, an  illustrated  weekly,  edited  by  progressive 
Mohammedan  women,  called  the  attention  of  its 
readers  to  the  severe  overwork  and  underpay  of  the 
women  in  Turkish  industries,  who  were  working  for 
fourteen  hours  out  of  the  twenty-four  and  receiving 
about  fifteen  cents  a day  in  return.  And  in  Sivas,  an 
Armenian  friend  tells  me,  there  are  between  four  and 
five  thousand  workers  in  rug  factories,  many  of  them 
women,  some  of  them  children  so  young  that  they 
“scarcely  can  speak,  even.’  The  working  hours, 
she  says,  are  in  winter  from  half  past  five  in  the 
morning  until  half  past  six  in  the  evening,  and  in 
summer  from  half  past  three,  or  sometimes  four. 


46  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

in  the  morning,  until  seven  or  eight  at  night.  The 
factory  rooms  are  so  crowded  that  the  air  is  always 
bad,  especially  in  winter  when  the  below-zero 
weather  of  Sivas  makes  it  impossible  to  open  the 
windows.  Payment  is  on  the  basis  of  the  amount  of 
work  done,  and  varies  from  about  two  to  nine  cents 
a day. 

Definite  information  as  to  whether  or  not  the  work 

in  such  factories  has  gone  on  since  the  war  began 

cannot  be  secured,  but  it  is  highly  improbable  that 

it  has.  And  probably,  in  any  case,  the  number  of 

women  in  factories  in  Mohammedan  countries  is 

comparatively  small,  and  the  occasional  reports  of 

them  serve  to  suggest  what  the  future  dangers  in 

the  Near  East  may  be,  rather  than  to  indicate  any 

very  widespread  present  conditions. 

. T In  India,  however,  the  woman  in  in- 

In  India.  . . ’ r , , 

dustry  is  a very  present  factor.  In  the 

cotton  mills  of  Bombay  alone  there  are  twenty-two 
thousand  women  and  girls.  The  fact  that  the  laws 
which  govern  India  are  drawn  up  by  the  British 
Government,  tends  to  guard  the  Indian  women 
factory  workers  against  such  excessive  overwork  and 
underpay  as  some  of  the  women  in  factories  of  other 
Oriental  countries  must  endure.  The  East  India 
Factory  Labor  Commission  reported  in  1908  that 
“the  physique  of  the  female  workers  is  uniformly 
excellent”  and  that  “they  are  not  in  any  way  in- 
juriously affected  by  the  employment  in  factories.” 
Dr.  Nair  of  Madras  attributes  this  condition  to  the 
fact  that  the  law  does  not  permit  more  than  eleven 
hours  of  work  for  women,  and  that,  therefore, 
“whatever  the  hours  of  starting  or  stopping  of  a mill 


THE  WAGE  EARNERS 


47 

may  be,  women  seldom  turn  up  before  seven,  and 
seldom  stay  at  work  after  six.  This,”  he  goes  on  to 
say,  “gives  them  time  both  in  the  morning  and  even- 
ing to  attend  to  their  household  duties.” 

Morning  household  duties  performed  before  seven, 
the  hours  from  seven  to  six  spent  at  a cotton  reel, 
evening  home  tasks  to  be  performed  before  bedtime — 
in  spite  of  the  glowing  words  of  the  report  of  the 
Factory  Labor  Commission  this  would  scarcely  seem 
a short  or  easy  day’s  work  to  most  of  us.  And  Miss 
Martha  Whealdon,  of  the  Young  Women’s  Chris- 
tian Association  of  Bombay,  does  not  find  it  possible 
to  bring  away  any  such  enthusiastic  impression  of 
the  health  and  physique  of  the  women  operatives, 
after  visiting  several  of  these  cotton  mills,  at  the 
half  hour’s  noon  rest  time. 

In  a Bombay  “The  looms  Were  yet  flying,”  she 

cotton  mill.  writes  of  one  visit,  “and  the  din  of  the 

machinery,  together  with  the  stifling  air,  gave  a 
sickening  sense  of  confusion.  The  great  room  was 
very  light,  most  of  its  walls  being  window  space,  but 
I later  found  that  the  great  humidity  in  the  air  is 
thought  to  shrink  the  cotton,  hence  the  operatives 
must  do  without  fresh  air!  A scientific  gentleman  has 
conducted  very  delicate  experiments  to  show  that 
the  loss  per  yard  would  be  regained  by  work  done 
by  the  operator  were  he  given  air,  but  a campaign  or 
a revolution  is  necessary  to  convince  on  this  point. 
Would  that  we  had  a Foundation  or  a Survey  to 
create  India’s  public  opinion  for  the  next  century!” 
Of  the  women  who  gathered  around  her.  Miss 
Whealdon  says:  “A  strange  group  it  was — old, 
haggard,  gray-headed  women,  and  anxious-faced 


WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 


4« 

girls,  old  beyond  their  years.  Most  of  them  were  of 
the  coolie  class,  all  looking  so  weary  and  haunted. 
The  noon  rest  is  but  half  an  hour,  and  they  had  been 
at  work  since  seven  o’clock.  Many  had  risen  early  to 
cook  the  food  for  their  family  before  coming  to  work. 
It  is  no  wonder  that  when  the  loom  stops  they  lie  on  the 
floor  by  it, until  the  call  to  work  drives  them  on  again.” 
Whole  communities  move  to  Bombay  in  a body  in 
order  to  get  work  in  the  mills  and  factories.  After 
famine  or  pestilence  has  swept  a district  the  sur- 
vivors often  move,  en  masse,  to  an  industrial  center. 
Too  often  they  live  under  unspeakably  unhealthy 
conditions,  crowding  together  in  their  little  mud  huts 
on  some  bit  of  ground  which  had  been  left  vacant 
because  there  were  reasons  why  it  was  unfit  for 
occupancy.  In  Bombay,  at  least,  the  municipality 
has  made  earnest  efforts  to  clean  up  these  breeding 
places  of  disease,  and  has  provided  comfortable  and 
sanitary  shelter  for  the  workers,  in  corrugated-iron 
buildings.  The  main  difficulty  lies  in  educating  the 
factory  folk  up  to  feeling  comfortable  in  such  un- 
won tedly  cleanly  surroundings. 

_ For  uncounted  centuries  China  sup- 

ln  China.  , , , . , r. 

ported  her  vast  population  by  agri- 
culture. Such  simple  manufactured  articles  as  she 
needed  were  easily  supplied  by  hand.  She  held  no 
dealings  with  other  nations  and  lacked  the  incentive 
to  manufacturing  industries  which  commerce  brings. 
Even  after  Western  nations  forced  her  to  open  cer- 
tain of  her  ports  to  commerce,  the  need  for  indus- 
trial plants  was  felt  very  slowly,  for  her  agricultural 
products,  such  as  tea,  rice,  beans,  etc.,  formed  a 
large  proportion  of  her  exports,  and  handwork  had 


THE  WAGE  EARNERS 


49 

always  proved  very  satisfactory  in  the  weaving  of 
silks  and  cottons.  But  modern  machinery  has  now 
begun  to  come  in  China  and  the  last  few  years  have 
brought  significant  changes. 

Chinese  women  and  girls,  in  considerable  though 
proportionately  small  numbers,  are  spending  their 
days  within  factory  walls  in  many  parts  of  China. 
The  new  republic  has  had  so  many  overwhelming 
and  urgent  problems  to  solve,  that  it  is  not  surprising 
that  its  scattered  and  varied  industries  have  not 
been  brought  under  any  unifying  legislation  or  in- 
spection. There  is  the  greatest  possible  diversity  in 
the  size  of  factories,  type  of  work,  conditions  and 
hours  of  labor,  wages,  etc.,  and  any  generalizations 
would  be  almost  certain  to  misrepresent  the  facts. 
The  best  one  can  do  is  to  cite  a few  examples  of 
the  work  Chinese  women  are  doing  in  factories, 
and  let  these  facts  suggest  the  problems  and  needs 
which  will,  e’er  we  know  it,  be  upon  us  in  China. 
Weaving  In  some  districts  of  China  the  cotton 

establishments.  spinning  which  many  women  are 
doing  in  their  homes  has  led  to  the  development  of 
weaving  establishments  in  the  cities.  Mrs.  Baird, 
of  Luchowfu,  reports  that  such  establishments  are 
found  in  great  numbers  throughout  that  section  of 
the  country.  Most  of  those  with  which  she  is  per- 
sonally acquainted  are  very  small,  numbering  their 
employees  by  the  tens,  although  there  are  others  with 
a larger  corps  of  workers.  These  establishments  run 
seven  days  a week,  with  only  a very  few  yearly  holi- 
days, and  wages  are  paid  on  the  basis  of  the  amount 
of  work  done  and  the  degree  of  skill  shown.  Most  of 
the  women  employees  receive  their  food  and  a few 


WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 


5° 


hundred  cash  a month  (a  “cash”  is  about  one- 
twentieth  of  an  American  cent),  although  those  who 
have  become  expert  through  long  practice  sometimes 
earn  as  much  as  one  or  two  dollars  a month,  in 
addition  to  their  food.  Another  industry,  recently 
established  in  that  section  of  China,  is  that  of  ma- 
chine-made socks.  The  machines  are  very  small,  but 
this  work  pays  somewhat  better  than  that  in  the 
cotton-weaving  establishments,  where  hand  looms 
are  used. 


A uniform 
factory. 


Some  two  thousand  women  of  Peking 
are  earning  a scanty  wage  in  a factory 
recently  opened  by  the  Government  for  the  making 
of  soldiers’  uniforms.  Half  of  the  immense  building 
is  filled  with  men,  the  rooms  on  the  other  side  of  the 
court  with  women,  who  sit  on  the  floor  all  day  long, 
working  on  the  coarse  wadded  cloth  of  which  the 
uniforms  are  made.  It  is  hard  work,  and  ill-paid, 
but  the  few  coppers  they  earn  are  a boon  to  the 
women  employed  there. 

„ . An  industry  recently  started  in  Shang- 

Egg-preserving.  , . . , J c J ^ & 

hai  is  that  or  egg-preserving.  1 wo 
hundred  Chinese  girls  are  working  in  one  factory, 
each  girl  breaking  and  examining  about  three 
thousand  eggs  a day.  They  receive  about  five  dollars 
gold  a month. 

The  Shanghai  Many  of  the  large  factories  of  China 
factories.  are  owned  and  managed  by  Ameri- 

cans, Europeans,  and  Japanese  and  are,  therefore, 
located  only  in  such  cities  as  have  “foreign  conces- 
sions” within  which  land  can  be  owned  by  foreigners. 
Most  of  these  foreign-owned  factories  are  in  Shang- 
hai, and  no  one  who  has  spent  any  time  in  that  city 


THE  WAGE  EARNERS 


51 

will  forget  the  morning  and  evening  procession  of 
wheelbarrows,  each  laden  with  six  or  eight  girls  and 
women,  which  bump  briskly  to  and  from  the  fac- 
tories and  the  workers’  homes  each  day.  The  major- 
ity of  the  factory  women  are  not,  however,  residents 
of  Shanghai,  and  are  housed  in  the  unending  rows  of 
dingy,  sunless  little  houses  which  surround  the 
factory  districts.  It  is  reported  that  already  thirty 
thousand  women  and  children  have  come  from  out- 
side of  Shanghai  to  work  in  the  factories  there. 

The  chief  industries  of  Shanghai  are  the  making  of 
silk,  cotton,  and  paper.  Many  of  the  mills  are  very 
large,  some  of  them  employing  as  many  as  two 
thousand  workers.  The  buildings  are,  for  the  most 
part  typical  factories,  such  as  would  be  found  in  any 
manufacturing  center  in  Europe  or  America.  They 
are  equipped  with  thoroughly  modern  machinery, 
and  are  often  well-lighted  and  well-heated.  But  the 
hours  are  cruelly  long  and  many  of  them  run  day  and 
night.  After  his  recent  visit  to  China,  Dr.  Speer 
said:  “It  is  heart-breaking  to  go  into  the  great 
cotton  factories  and  see  the  men  and  women  and 
children,  chiefly  women  and  children  of  eight  years 
old  and  upward,  working  in  long  twelve-hour  shifts, 
seven  days  in  the  week,  and  every  week  of  the  year. 
Near  the  house  where  we  were  staying  in  China  we 
saw  each  evening  the  large  companies  of  women  and 
little  girls  carrying  their  simple  rice  bowls  in  their 
hands  on  their  way  for  their  long  night  toil.  If  there 
are  too  many  lives  in  China,  the  present  factory 
system  will  bring  a murderous  relief.” 

The  child  The  employment  of  little  children  in 

laborers.  these  factories  is  one  of  the  worst 


52  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

elements  in  the  situation.  The  nurses  in  Shanghai 
hospitals  have  a chance  to  see  some  of  the  dreadful 
results  of  this  child  labor.  “Last  Sunday  morning,” 
says  one  of  them,  “a  ghastly  sight,  one  to  make  the 
blood  boil  and  the  soul  cry  out  in  indignation,  might 
have  been  seen  at  an  early  hour  passing  along  the 
streets  of  Shanghai  from  one  of  the  cotton  mills  to 
one  of  the  hospitals.  It  was  a little  child,  eight  years 
old,  literally  scalped — scalp  and  hair  torn  from  the 
skull  as  the  skin  is  peeled  from  an  orange,  and  mashed 
up  into  a horrible  mess  of  flesh  and  blood  and  hair. 
A child  of  eight  years,  mind  you!  The  story  is  very 
simple.  A child  of  eight  years  old,  working  for 
twelve  hours  at  a stretch  on  the  night  shift  in  a local 
cotton  mill,  condemned  to  work  through  the  long 
night  hours,  amid  all  the  dangers  of  soulless,  heart- 
less, unseeing,  unthinking,  unheeding  machinery, 
and  not  equal  to  the  task.  Just  a nod  of  the  weary, 
childish  head,  just  a slight  fall  forward  in  half- 
sleepy  lapse  into  unconsciousness — and — whizz,  the 
hair  is  caught  in  the  machinery,  the  scalp  is  torn  off-, 
the  little  child’s  head  is  all  but  smashed  to  pieces. 
For  a relenting  moment  the  machinery  is  stopped, 
the  encumbrance  removed,  and  the  child’s  place  is 
taken  by  another  seven  or  eight-year-old  mite,  who 
will  surely  have  learnt  better  than  to  get  tired  and  to 
fall  forward  into  the  machinery.  Of  course,  the 
child  has  no  business  to  get  tired  and  to  fall  forward 
into  the  relentless  machinery.  Is  there  not  a superior, 
or  a foreman,  or  some  kindly  official  of  that  kind  to 
go  round  and  prod  the  poor  little  beggars  in  the  back 
or  the  ribs  every  so  often,  to  make  sure  they  do  not 
go  to  sleep  and  waste  precious  time?  Of  course 


THE  WAGE  EARNERS 


53 

there  is,  but  he  cannot  be  omnipresent,  can  he?  So 
poor  little  eight-year-old  must  be  scalped  just  as  the 
dawn  is  coming  and  when  the  night’s  work  is  pretty 
near  ending.” 

“There  is  abundant  child  labor  in  China,  we 
know,”  this  missionary  nurse  goes  on  to  say,  “but 
it  is  only  in  the  treaty  ports  that  this  utterly  soulless 
capitalism  plays  havoc.  Most  of  the  child  labor  of 
China  is  at  any  rate  labor  in  the  fresh  air  and  sun. 
It  is  labor  very  largely  within  the  physical  powers 
of  the  child;  and  whilst  it  is  none  the  less  to  be  de- 
plored, it  is  to  be  remembered  that  it  has  never  been 
exploited  in  the  way  that  the  new  mills  and  factories 
are  beginning  to  exploit  it.” 

The  certain  The  growth  of  industrialism  in  China 
growth.  is  certain.  Dr.  Brewster  says,  “These 

Shanghai  factories  are  the  forerunners  of  thousands 
all  over  China.”  Dr.  Speer  reports  that  he  found,  on 
his  last  trip  to  China,  that  the  factory  system  had 
begun  in  many  centers  besides  Shanghai,  and  was 
already  far  developed  in  Tientsin,  Hankow,  and 
other  cities.  “A  new  industrial  order  in  China  is 
inevitable,”  he  says,  “and  with  it  will  come  conse- 
quences both  to  China  and  to  the  rest  of  the  world 
which  no  one  can  foresee.  When  the  cheapest,  steadi- 
est, most  efficient  labor  in  the  world,  representing 
more  than  a fourth  of  the  working  power  of  humanity, 
is  employed  in  its  own  mills,  working  up  its  own  raw 
materials,  and  with  the  product  enters  into  a com- 
petition with  the  West,  a new  chapter  of  economic 
history  will  begin,  and  a new  day  for  China,  as  well.” 
Now  is  the  time,  thoughtful  men  and  women  in 
China  are  saying,  to  create  public  opinion  which  will 


WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 


In  Japan. 


54 

result  in  laws  which  shall  make  this  inevitable  in- 
dustrial development  bring  good,  not  ill,  to  China. 
Now  is  the  time,  when  the  movement  is  still  in  its 
beginnings,  to  eradicate  already  existing  evils,  and 
guard  against  the  development  of  new  ones.  Now 
is  the  time  to  protect  the  women  and  children  of 
China  against  such  conditions  as  industrial  develop- 
ment has  brought  to  the  women  and  children  of 
Japan.  Dr.  Speer  reports  that  he  found  many  of  the 
Chinese  owners  of  factories  eager  for  reform.  The 
example  of  the  Western  world  will  have  no  small 
influence  upon  them. 

The  great  industrial  nation  of  the 
East  today  is,  of  course,  Japan. 
Although  she  has  by  no  means  abandoned  agricul- 
ture, she  has,  almost  during  the  last  generation, 
shifted  her  emphasis  to  manufactures.  The  genius 
of  her  people  for  learning  from  other  nations,  and 
adapting  what  has  been  learned,  has  enabled  her  in 
little  more  than  a quarter  of  a century  to  build  up  a 
tremendous  factory  system  and  to  take  her  place  as 
one  of  the  world’s  great  commercial  countries.  The 
rapidity  with  which  she  has  achieved  what  Western 
nations  accomplished  very  gradually,  has,  however, 
involved  her  in  industrial  and  sociological  problems 
of  the  most  serious  and  acute  type.  And  they  are 
problems  which  bear  particularly  upon  her  women. 
For  it  is  woman’s  labor  which  is  chiefly  responsible 
for  Japan’s  ability  to  compete  commercially  with 
nations  whose  manufacturing  industries  were  well 
established  when  Japan  was  still  a hermit  and 
medieval  nation,  knowing  little  and  caring  less  about 
the  lands  on  the  other  side  of  the  Pacific. 


THE  WAGE  EARNERS 


55 

The  proportion  Recently  published  statistics  showing 
of  women  in  the  proportion  of  women  employed  in 
the  industries  of  other  countries,  as 
compared  with  that  of  Japan,  are  startling.  In  the 
United  States  the  proportion  is  86  men  to  14  women 
who  are  wage  earners,  7 5 men  to  25  women  in  Great 
Britain,  80  men  to  20  women  in  Germany,  while  in 
Japan  56  per  cent,  of  the  factory  operatives  are 
women.  The  figures  for  Europe  were,  of  course,  com- 
piled before  the  war  and  are  very  different  from  any 
statistics  which  might  be  taken  in  Great  Britain  or 
Germany  today.  But  they  serve  to  show  how  much 
less  these  nations  depend  on  woman’s  work  in  in- 
dustry, under  normal  conditions,  than  does  Japan. 
The  host  of  Absolutely  accurate  statistics  as  to 
workers.  the  number  of  women  and  girls  em- 

ployed in  the  industries  of  Japan  cannot  be  secured, 
for,  while  government  reports  are  published,  they 
are  brought  out  at  infrequent  intervals,  and  the 
latest  figures  available  are  often  for  several  years 
back.  Moreover,  the  government  reports  give  the 
proportion  of  men  and  women  workers  in  large 
factories,  but  do  not  separate  the  figures  for  the 
weaving  establishments  where  a large  proportion  of 
the  697,698  operatives  are  women.  Neither  does  the 
Government  take  any  account  of  establishments 
employing  less  than  ten  workers.  That  there  are 
hundreds  of  girls  in  these  little  establishments,  and 
that  the  conditions  under  which  they  work  are 
probably  even  more  appalling  than  those  of  the 
girls  in  the  larger  factories,  is  indicated  by  what  Dr. 
Gulick  says  of  those  in  and  near  the  city  of  Mat- 
suyama. He  reports  that  there  are  scores,  even 


56  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

hundreds  of  such  small  places  in  this  one  city  and  its 
suburbs,  the  treatment  of  workers  and  the  hours  of 
labor  being  entirely  settled  by  the  individual  owners, 
as  the  Government  does  not  even  include  them  in  its 
reports. 

“As  a rule,”  says  Dr.  Gulick,  “the  girls  are  ap- 
prenticed for  from  two  to  three  years  immediately 
on  leaving  the  primary  school,  at  an  age,  therefore, 
of  twelve  or  thirteen.  They  barely  earn  their  living, 
although  they  work  from  daybreak  to  ten  or  eleven 
at  night,  and  in  some  establishments  even  till  mid- 
night— from  fifteen  to  eighteen  hours  a day!  There 
are  no  night  shifts  and  rare  holidays  on  occasional 
festivals.  The  hygienic  and  moral  conditions  are 
about  as  bad  as  can  be.  It  is  estimated  that  one-half 
of  the  girls  are  ruined  before  the  close  of  their  ap- 
prenticeship.”* 

Of  these  hundreds  of  ill-used  little  girls,  the  govern- 
ment statistics  take  no  account.  When,  therefore, 
we  read  the  figures  in  the  latest  available  reports, 
we  must  bear  in  mind  that  not  only  the  thousands  of 
factory  girls  listed  there,  but  an  unnumbered  multi- 
tude of  little  weaving  apprentices  are  giving  their 
youth  and  strength  to  build  up  the  industries  of 
modern  Japan. 

The  government  reports  for  1912  listed  15,119 
factories  employing  863,447  workers,  515,217  of 
whom  were  women,  348,230  men.  The  factory 
returns  issued  by  the  Department  of  Agriculture  and 
Commerce  in  1910  report  a total  of  814,419  workers, 
477,874  of  whom  were  women,  which  serves  to  show 


Gulick:  Working  Women  oj  Japan. 


JAPANESE  WOMEN  COALING  A TRANS-PACIFIC  LINER  AT  NAGASAKI 


THE  WAGE  EARNERS  57 

that  the  number  of  women  employed  in  factories  is 
increasing  steadily. 

Of  the  total  of  814,419  workers  employed  in  1910, 
41,913  were  under  14  years  of  age.  Of  these,  7,308 
were  boys,  and  34,605  girls.  Galen  Fisher,  in  a very 
thorough  study  of  Women  Factory  Laborers  pub- 
lished in  the  Christian  Movement  in  Japan,  in  1915, 
reports  that  the  latest  figures  available  to  him  at  that 
time  showed  that  65  per  cent,  of  all  the  women  em- 
ployed in  Japan’s  factories  were  under  20,  and  22 
per  cent,  were  under  14. 

The  factories  What  of  the  factories  in  which  these 

they  work  m.  women  and  girls  work?  No  factory 

laws  are  at  present  operative  in  Japan,  and  each 
factory  is,  therefore,  a law  unto  itself.  And  in  view 
of  the  conditions  existing  in  hundreds  and  thousands 
of  factories  in  Christian  America,  is  it  surprising  that 
in  Japan,  where  most  of  the  factory  owners  are  not 
Christians,  there  should  often  be  more  thought  of 
the  owner’s  profits  than  of  the  employee’s  welfare? 
A rough  translation  of  a Japanese  rhyme  reads: 

“To  call  a factory  girl  a human’s  as  absurd 
As  to  call  a butterfly  or  dragonfly  a bird,” 
and  the  way  in  which  many  factories  are  managed 
would  seem  to  show  that  too  many  Japanese  em- 
ployers are  in  practical  sympathy  with  this  senti- 
ment. Japan  feels  that  to  live  she  must  compete 
successfully  with  larger  nations,  whose  industries 
and  commerce  are  well  established,  and  to  do  this 
she  must  put  out  an  inexpensive  product  from  her 
factories.  And  the  simplest  and  most  obvious  method 
of  doing  this  is  to  make  capital  out  of  inexpensive 
human  labor.  That  this  is,  in  the  long  run,  the  most 


WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 


58 

wasteful  possible  method,  is  lost  sight  of  or  ignored 
under  the  stress  of  present  pressure.  Miss  Caroline 
MacDonald  tells  of  a visit  to  a factory  where  much 
of  the  spinning  is  done  by  hand  and  by  small 
children.  “The  manager  who  took  us  around  noticed 
that  I stopped  some  small  children  working  at  spin- 
ning wheels,  and  he  made  a passing  comment, 
‘You  can’t  afford  to  use  human  labor  in  your  country 
as  we  do.  Machine  labor  is  cheaper  for  you.  But  in 
Japan  human  labor  is  so  cheap!'  I glanced  again  at 
the  little  mite  working  with  both  hands,  one  to  turn 
the  wheel  and  the  other  to  guide  the  thread,  without 
the  slightest  expression  of  intelligence  on  her  face  and 
with  the  mechanical  precision  of  a machine.  As  I 
stood  there  she  suddenly  stopped,  and  for  a moment 
there  was  a flash  of  intelligence.  She  sighed  heavily 
with  an  air  of  utter  weariness,  and  then  machine-like 
again  she  resumed  her  work.  She  was  cheaper  than 
machinery! 

‘Oh  God,  that  bread  should  be  so  dear. 

And  flesh  and  blood  so  cheap!’  ” 

Their  hours  No  laws  limiting  hours  of  work  are 

of  work.  y et  enforced,  and  the  result  is  that 

twelve  hours  and  above  is  the  rule  rather  than  the 
exception  for  women  and  little  girls.  In  Susaka, 
which  is  reported  to  have  a population  of  ten  thou- 
sand people  plus  twenty  thousand  factory  girls  be- 
tween fourteen  and  twenty  years  old,  the  girls  are 
said  to  work  from  four  in  the  morning  until  eight  in 
the  evening,  with  twenty  minutes  at  noon  for  their 
dinner  of  rice  and  sweet  potatoes. 

In  another  city,  in  northern  Japan,  where  fifteen 


THE  WAGE  EARNERS 


59 

hundred  girls  between  the  ages  of  twelve  to  twenty- 
eight  are  working  in  130  factories,  the  hours  are 
reported  to  be  from  five  in  the  morning  until  ten  at 
night,  with  an  hour  off  at  noon.  There  is,  of  course, 
no  Sunday  rest  day,  but  two  holidays  a month  are 
granted.  The  girls  are  given  food  and  clothing  and 
from  fifteen  to  forty  cents  a month  in  money.  In 
general,  the  hours  run  from  thirteen  to  sixteen  hours 
in  silk  factories;  twelve  to  fifteen  and  even  sixteen 
in  weaving  factories;  although  in  large  cotton  mills 
the  working  day  is  seldom  over  twelve,  sometimes 
not  more  than  eleven  hours  long.  The  time  allowed 
for  meals  and  rest  is  reduced  to  a minimum,  and 
often  the  girls  eat  their  rice  without  stopping  their 
work  at  their  machines.  If  they  take  the  full  time 
which  is  nominally  allowed  them,  they  are  too  often 
in  danger  of  incurring  the  ill-will  of  the  foreman. 

The  fact  that  a girl  works  in  a factory  which  does 
not  require  over  eleven  or  twelve  hours’  work  from 
her  does  not  at  all  necessarily  mean  that  her  life  is 
less  arduous  than  that  of  a girl  who  must  stay  at  her 
machine  for  fourteen  or  fifteen  or  sixteen  hours.  For 
the  fact  that  a girl  works  no  more  than  twelve  hours 
a day  very  probably  means  that  she  is  in  one  of  that 
very  large  number  of  factories  whose  machines  never 
rest,  day  or  night,  even  the  youngest  of  whose  girls 
is  required  to  take  her  turn  on  the  night  shift.  Most 
of  the  large  cotton  mills  and  spinning  factories  work 
day  and  night,  dividing  their  workers  into  two 
shifts,  one  working  from  six  A.  M.  to  six  P.  M.;  the 
other  coming  on  at  six  P.  M.  and  remaining  on  duty 
until  six  A.  M. 


6o 


WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 


The  wages  Statistics  gathered  from  305  factories 
they  earn.  by  the  Tokyo  Metropolitan  Police  in 

1911-12,  and  cited  in  Mr.  Fisher’s  article,  give 
the  average  daily  wage  of  women  in  silk  mills  as 
31  sen  a day;  in  spinning  factories,  31  sen;  in  weaving 
factories,  29  sen;  shirt-making  factories,  26  sen;  and 
tobacco  factories,  26  sen.  Two-thirds  of  the  girls  re- 
ceived less  than  33  sen  a day,  which  means  that  only 
one-third  of  the  women  employed  were  earning  as 
much  as  five  dollars  a month  for  twelve  or  more 
hours’  work  a day,  or  night — seven  days  a week — 
for,  of  course,  Japan  does  not  observe  Sunday.  These 
wages  are  about  half  those  paid  to  men  doing  simi- 
lar work.  If  the  girls  live  in  the  factory  boarding 
homes,  as  most  of  them  are  required  to  do,  they  pay 
about  #1.20  a month  for  board,  which  is  a trifle 
less  than  the  cost  of  their  food. 

The  conditions  The  conditions  of  work  in  the  factories 
of  work.  are  reported  to  be  decidedly  bad  in 

many  cases,  especially  in  the  smaller  ones.  The  rooms 
are  too  often  dimly  lighted,  ventilation  conspicuous 
by  its  absence,  and  the  air  full  of  nauseous  vapors. 
Because  the  girls  know  so  little  of  machinery,  and 
because  the  devices  which  would  prevent  accidents 
cost  money  and  would,  therefore,  reduce  profits, 
many  accidents  occur.  A missionary  in  Osaka 
reports  that  the  surgeon  in  a factory  with  one 
thousand  employees  told  her  that  an  average  of  fifty 
accidents  daily  required  his  services.  Not  long  ago 
five  fingers  were  clipped  off  in  a single  factory  in  one 
day.  Conditions  are  improving,  but  are  far  from 
right  yet. 


THE  WAGE  EARNERS 


6l 


The  dormitories  But  probably  the  greatest  evil  of  all  is 
they  sleep  in.  wrought  by  the  system  of  factory 
dormitories.  A recent  visitor  to  Japan  tells  of  passing 
a stockade  fence  so  high  and  strong  that  he  thought 
it  must  surely  be  a part  of  the  national  defences. 
But  not  at  all;  it  was  simply  the  stockade  surround- 
ing the  premises  of  a factory,  to  prevent  the  workers 
from  running  away.  For  the  factory  girl  of  Japan  is 
usually  a prisoner  on  the  factory  premises,  not 
allowed  to  go  out  from  one  week’s  end  to  another. 
Seventy  per  cent,  of  the  women  working  in  factories 
are  compelled  to  live  in  dormitories  provided  by  the 
company,  which  are  too  generally  “as  good  breeding 
places  of  diseases  as  the  germ-culture  trays  of  a 
biologist’s  laboratory.”  Many  of  the  factories  in  the 
large  cities  house  from  one  to  three  thousand  girls  in 
one  great  boarding  house,  divided  into  wards  hold- 
ing from  two  hundred  and  fifty  to  three  hundred  girls. 

In  small  factories  the  dormitories  are  usually  worse 
in  appointment  than  in  the  larger  ones,  the  sleeping 
rooms  frequently  being  built  directly  over  the  fac- 
tory, and  receiving  their  full  share  of  the  noise, 
steam,  and  bad  air  from  below.  The  rooms  are  apt  to 
be  dark  and  poorly  ventilated  and  packed  so  full  of 
girls  that  the  average  space  allotted  per  person  is  two 
square  yards.  In  the  Nagano  silk  filatures,  says  Mr. 
Fisher,  there  is  even  less  space. 

One  of  the  most  crying  evils  of  the  factory  dormi- 
tories lies  in  the  fact  that  the  day  and  night  shifts 
use  the  same  rooms  and  bedding  from  one  year’s  end 
to  another.  The  girls  from  the  day  shift  tumble 
wearily  into  rooms  from  which  all  sun  and  air  have 
been  kept  out  all  day,  in  order  that  the  light  might 


62  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

not  disturb  the  sleeping  night  shift,  and  throw  them- 
selves down  on  the  bedding  still  warm  from  the  girls 
who  have  just  gone  on  duty.  With  neither  rooms  nor 
bedding  ever  aired  or  sunned  is  it  amazing  that  skin 
troubles,  tuberculosis,  and  other  diseases  spread 
rapidly  through  companies  of  girls  whose  vitality  is 
being  continually  lowered  by  excessive  work,  lack 
of  air  or  exercise,  and  insufficient  food?  For  the  food 
furnished  in  the  factory  dormitories  is  “almost 
always  inadequate.” 

The  price  The  physical  results  of  factory  work 

they  pay.  are  perhaps  its  most  obvious,  though 

by  no  means  its  only,  injurious  effects  on  the  girls. 
The  cost  which  Japan  is  paying  in  flesh  and  blood 
for  industrial  success  is  an  appallingly  heavy  one. 
Life  in  the  factories  is  one  which  stunts  growth. 
Practically  none  of  the  children  who  work  there  grow 
after  they  are  fourteen  years  old.  The  night  work 
which  many  are  required  to  do  wears  them  down, 
until  in  time  they  are  scarcely  more  than  walking 
skeletons.  Mr.  Fisher  reports  that  “out  of  1,350 
girls  examined  and  weighed,  the  loss  of  weight  of 
those  employed  on  night  shifts  in  cotton  factories 
was  from  1 1/4  to  1 5/12  pounds  a week.  In  the 
printing  works  the  loss  varied  from  1 1/5  to  2 1/5 
pounds,  and  in  metal  factories  it  ran  up  to  2 1/2 
pounds.  During  the  succeeding  five  days  when  these 
same  girls  were  on  the  day  shift,  they  in  no  case 
regained  all  that  they  had  lost,  the  maximum  loss 
being  in  the  printing  offices  where  the  loss  was 
1 2/3  pounds.” 

Of  the  two  hundred  thousand  new  girls  who  each 
year  enter  the  doors  of  Japan’s  factories,  thirteen 


THE  WAGE  EARNERS 


63 

thousand  return  home  because  of  serious  illness 
before  the  year  is  over,  most  of  them  suffering  from 
tuberculosis.  Mr.  Fisher’s  article  reveals  the  appalling 
fact  that  when  one  adds  together  the  number  of 
women  who  die  in  the  factories,  and  those  who  die 
after  leaving  them  because  of  illness  contracted 
while  in  them,  “the  ratio  of  death  is  nearly  three  times 
as  high  as  the  ordinary  death  rate  among  women. 
Of  4.6  girls  who  are  taken  ill,  one  dies.  This  is  higher 
than  among  any  other  class  of  women.’’  One  can  find 
no  room  for  doubt  of  the  truth  of  Mr.  Fisher’s 
emphatic  statement:  “More  damaging  to  the  health 
of  the  Japanese  people  than  even  a war  is  the  yearly 
toll  exacted  from  among  the  two  hundred  thousand 
girls  who  are  being  recruited  for  the  factories.  The 
family  is  being  undermined  at  its  center.  The  safe- 
guards of  home,  religion,  and  friends  are  all  weakened 
by  the  abnormal  conditions  of  factory  life.” 

But  factory  life,  as  it  is  in  Japan,  does  not  simply 
stunt  the  body.  The  fact  that  the  workers  are  often 
little  children  means  that  only  the  most  elementary 
education,  if  any  at  all,  is  the  portion  of  the  factory 
girl.  And  whatever  mental  keenness  may  have  once 
been  hers  is  soon  crushed  out  by  the  bitterly  long 
hours,  and  the  deadening  monotony  of  her  work. 
She  becomes  simply  a part  of  her  machine.  Some 
factories  maintain  schools  for  their  employees,  but 
few  of  the  girls  are  fresh  enough  to  derive  any  bene- 
fit from  the  hour  or  two  of  study  offered  them. 
“Some  of  the  women  and  girls  looked  bright  and 
intelligent,”  writes  a visitor  to  a factory  in  Osaka, 
“but  for  the  most  part  they  were  rather  dull  of  face, 
and  below  the  standard  of  Japanese  cleanliness.” 


64  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

And  if  the  conditions  in  most  of  the  factories  of 
Japan  are  injurious  to  physical  growth  and  mental 
development,  it  is  equally  true  that  they  are  danger- 
ous to  moral  healthfulness.  Most  of  the  girls  who 
enter  the  employ  of  the  factory  have  had  little 
chance  for  the  development  of  high  moral  or  re- 
ligious ideals  or  strong  character,  and  the  environ- 
ment into  which  they  are  thrown  is  rarely  free  from 
temptations.  The  very  fact  that  body  and  spirit 
are  weakened  by  exhaustion  makes  them  less  able 
to  resist  than  under  normal  conditions.  Their  over- 
seers are  too  often  men  of  little  principle,  and  fre- 
quently constitute  one  of  the  gravest  dangers  to  the 
girls.  Many  factories  keep  the  girls  locked  inside  the 
factory  grounds  all  the  time,  but  it  is  a question 
whether  this  medieval  custom  is  really  more  to  be 
decried  than  the  unsupervised  freedom  of  the  girls 
of  other  factories,  who  are  permitted  to  roam  the 
streets  at  all  times.  And  unspeakable  as  are  the  con- 
ditions in  many  factory  dormitories,  they  are  less 
bad  than  the  boarding  houses  in  which  other  fac- 
tories place  their  girls,  some  of  which  are  frankly 
immoral,  and  in  which  the  girls  are  deliberately 
tempted. 

But  apart  from  the  dangers  directly  connected 
with  factory  life,  many  girls  are  ruined  as  an  in- 
direct result  of  the  conditions  under  which  they  live 
and  work.  Approximately  eighty  thousand  of  the 
two  hundred  thousand  annual  recruits  return  to 
their  homes  within  a year,  but  of  the  other  one 
hundred  and  twenty  thousand,  sixty  per  cent,  never 
return  at  all.  Their  work  is  so  hard  and  the  con- 
ditions under  which  both  day  and  night  are  spent 


THE  WAGE  EARNERS  65 

are  so  unpleasant,  that  it  is  little  wonder  that  they 
are  apt  to  go  from  one  factory  to  another  in  the  hope 
of  finding  easier  tasks  or  better  pay,  with  the  too 
frequent  result  that  they  finally  drift  into  places  of 
danger.  It  is  discouraging,  though  not  at  all  sur- 
prising, to  learn  that  the  adolescent  girls,  those  be- 
tween fourteen  and  twenty  years  of  age,  are  the  ones 
least  apt  to  stay  in  one  place.  Doubtless  the  greater 
part  of  the  sixty  per  cent,  who  never  return  to  their 
homes  are  from  among  these  young  girls  who  have 
drifted  from  the  factory  into  the  restaurant  or  tea 
house  and,  having  been  unable  to  resist  the  tempta- 
tions of  such  a life,  have  been  ashamed  to  go  back 
to  their  homes.  Many  of  them,  indeed,  are  finally 
found  in  the  Yoshiwara.  Mr.  Fisher’s  article  calls 
attention  to  the  significance  of  the  fact  that  Niigata 
prefecture  is  the  district  which  furnishes  the  greatest 
number  of  recruits,  both  for  the  factories  and  for 
prostitution.  The  fact  that  in  1912  fully  one-half 
of  the  women  arrested  in  Osaka  had  worked  in  fac- 
tories is  a terrible  commentary  on  the  effect  of 
Japan’s  factory  system  upon  the  moral  health  of  its 
employees. 

Why  they  What  really  calls  for  explanation  is 
come.  not  fhg  fact  tha-t  many  girls  leave  the 

factories,  but  rather  that  it  is  possible  to  secure  them 
for  such  a life  at  all,  and  that  any  of  them  remain  in 
it.  A part  of  the  answer  is  not  far  to  seek.  Girls  in 
Japan,  as  in  other  countries,  are  frequently  forced, 
by  the  pinch  of  poverty,  to  work  which  they  would 
never  otherwise  choose.  But  that  is  not  the  whole 
explanation,  for  there  are  other  kinds  of  work  less 
dangerous  to  physical  and  moral  health,  which  would 


66  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

have  been  open  to  a number  of  these  girls.  The  fact 
is  that  many  young  girls  cheerfully  sign  factory  con- 
tracts simply  because  neither  they  nor  their  parents 
have  any  conception  of  the  life  to  which  they  are 
committing  themselves.  The  factories  send  regular 
recruiting  officers  to  the  little  towns  and  villages, 
where  perhaps  there  lives  no  man  or  woman  who  has 
ever  seen  a great  city  or  has  any  accurate  knowledge 
of  its  life.  To  the  young  wide-eyed  girl  this  man 
paints  glowing  pictures  of  the  marvels  of  life  in  this 
far-away  wonderland,  the  excitement  and  thrill  of 
its  streets,  the  beautiful  clothes  to  be  found  in  its 
shops,  the  joys  of  its  theaters  and  moving  pictures; 
and  to  all  of  these  enchantments  he  promises  her  an 
open  door  by  means  of  the  money  she  will  earn.  To 
her  parents  he  holds  forth  long  and  loud  on  the  care 
which  will  be  given  their  daughter,  and  the  magnifi- 
cent sums  which  she  will  be  able  to  send  home  each 
month.  And  if  it  is  a district  to  which  the  broken, 
worn-out  girls  have  not  yet  begun  to  return,  he  is 
usually  able  to  persuade  a goodly  number  of  the 
little  country  maidens  to  go  back  to  the  city  with  him. 
Why  they  Once  there,  the  factory  owner  takes 

stay-  various  means  to  prevent  the  dis- 

illusioned girls  from  leaving.  The  high  blockade  and 
bolted  gates  are  usually  effective  if  somewhat  lacking 
in  subtlety.  But  he  often  resorts  to  more  wily 
methods.  He  opens  a little  store  where  cakes  and 
candies  and  bright  bits  of  things  to  wear  tempt  girls, 
whose  bodies  and  minds  are  alike  hungry,  to  pile 
up  accounts  which  keep  them  in  a constant  state  of 
indebtedness  to  the  factory,  and  make  it  impossible 
for  them  to  leave  it.  Other  factories  keep  out  a 


THE  WAGE  EARNERS 


67 

certain  proportion  of  each  girl’s  wages  and  send  it  to 
her  parents  together  with  a letter  telling  of  the 
excellent  health  and  general  well-being  of  their 
daughter.  If  the  daughter  has  had  sufficient  educa- 
tion to  enable  her  to  send  letters  home  herself,  telling 
a different  story,  the  parents,  delighted  at  the  steady 
income  from  her,  are  aDt  to  ascribe  her  dissatisfaction 
to  the  fickleness  and  instability  of  youth,  and  to  pay 
little  heed  to  her  protests. 

Some  of  the  larger  and  better  factories  try  to  keep 
their  girls  with  them  by  more  enlightened  methods, 
such  as  furnishing  good  and  ample  food.  Some  pro- 
vide education  and  recreation  for  the  girls  during 
their  leisure  hours.  These  “leisure  hours”  are,  how- 
ever, so  few,  and  the  girls  so  weary,  that  few  of  them 
appreciate  these  little  attentions  to  any  great  extent. 
And  before  long  there  comes  a time  when  the  re- 
cruiting officer’s  highly  colored  stories  fall  on  deaf 
ears.  After  the  girls  who  went  away  with  such  bright 
dreams  begin  to  come  home  ill  and  disillusioned, 
there  will  be  few  more  girls  from  that  district  to  go 
away  to  the  city’s  factories.  The  recruiters  must  take 
themselves  and  their  alluring  mendacities  to  regions 
where  the  modern  factory  is  still  only  dimly  known 
by  the  hearing  of  the  ear,  if  indeed,  it  is  known  at  all. 
It  is  said  that  any  district  is  likely  to  be  exhausted 
of  factory  recruits  in  three  years,  and  Dr.  Ishikara, 
a Japanese  physician  who  has  made  a study  of  the 
health  of  women  factory  workers,  thinks  the  supply 
of  them  is  now  beginning  to  run  out  all  over  the 
country. 

Factories  that 
are  different. 


It  would  be  unfair,  however,  to  leave 
the  impression  that  all  Japan’s  factories 


68  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

are  seeking  to  turn  out  a cheap  and  marketable  pro- 
duct with  no  thought  of  the  human  beings  whose 
labor  is  going  into  the  production.  Conditions  in 
general  are  better  now  than  they  were  a few  years  ago, 
and  in  particular,  there  are  some  factories  which  might 
well  serve  as  models  for  us,  as  well  as  for  Japan. 

Among  these  is  the  Kanegafuchi  Cotton  Spinning 
Company,  which  not  only  asks  only  reasonable  hours 
of  work  and  pays  good  wages,  provides  well-lighted 
and  well-ventilated  rooms  for  eating,  sleeping,  bath- 
ing, and  recreation,  as  well  as  working,  but  also  con- 
cerns itself  with  the  mental  and  moral  development 
of  its  employees.  Lectures  and  entertainments  are 
provided  for  the  education  and  pleasure  of  the  work- 
ers, and  Buddhist  and  Christian  teachers  are  invited 
from  time  to  time  to  give  religious  and  ethical  instruc- 
tion. For  a number  of  years  this  company  has  set 
aside  ten  thousand  dollars  each  year  for  a relief  and 
pension  fund  for  its  operatives.  It  recently  voted  an 
extra  $50,000  in  addition  to  its  regular  appropriation, 
for  a “welfare-promotion  fund.” 

The  Fuji  Cotton  Spinning  Company  is  another 
organization  which  is  not  unmindful  of  the  future  of 
its  employees.  When,  in  1913,  the  president  of  this 
company  was  presented  with  a retiring  grant  of 
$50,000  in  recognition  of  what  he  had  done  for  the 
company,  he  turned  over  the  entire  amount  to  the 
employees’  relief  fund  and  it  was  voted  that  his  gift 
should  become  the  nucleus  of  a permanent  endow- 
ment fund. 

Many  of  the  model  factories  are  owned  and 
managed  by  Christian  men,  who  do  not  keep  their 
Christianity  and  their  business  in  water-tight  com- 


THE  WAGE  EARNERS  69 

partments.  One  of  the  best  known  of  these  is  the 
Lion  Dentifrice  Company,  in  which  a system  of 
promotion  and  reward  for  loyal  service  is  in  operation. 
A free  night  school  is  carried  on  for  the  benefit  of  the 
workers,  an  athletic  field  is  furnished  them,  a rest 
and  recreation  home  is  kept  open  constantly,  and 
such  interesting  lectures  and  moving-picture  en- 
tertainments are  provided  for  the  entire  force  of 
workers,  that  there  is  no  temptation  to  the  girls  to 
seek  amusement  in  dangerous  places. 

Perhaps  the  most  notable  of  all  is  the  Gunze  Sishi 
Kwaisha,  which  was  established  by  a man  whose 
conversion  to  Christianity  meant  a sudden  turn- 
ing from  a wild,  immoral  life,  to  one  wholly  dominated 
in  every  particular,  by  the  spirit  and  teachings  of 
Christ.  He  started  his  new  life  in  the  face  of  distrust 
and  suspicion,  but  the  business  which  he  founded  on 
the  principle  of  Matthew  7:12,  has  become  one  of 
the  largest  and  best-known  silk  filatures  in  the 
country,  whose  ideals  are  exerting  a genuine  in- 
fluence for  high  industrial  standards  throughout 
Japan.  Dr.  Gulick’s  brief  account  of  this  remarkable 
factory  is  worth  careful  reading. 

“It  is  managed  by  a Christian  who  runs  it  entirely 
with  a view  to  the  benefit  of  the  workers  and  the 
district.  No  girls  of  that  district  go  elsewhere  for 
work.  Once  enrolled  as  members  of  the  working 
force,  they  are  regularly  instructed  both  in  general 
education  and  in  their  particular  duties;  they  earn 
good  wages,  keep  good  health,  receive  Christian 
instruction,  have  their  regular  rest  days,  remain  the 
full  number  of  years,  help  support  the  family  and 
earn  enough  besides  to  set  themselves  up  in  married 


WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 


70 

life,  and  are  now  beginning  to  send  their  daughters 
to  the  same  factory.  This  Christian  factory  is 
Christianizing  the  district.  The  rising  moral  and 
religious  life  is  transforming  even  the  agricultural 
and  other  interests  of  the  region.  So  high  is  the 
grade  of  silk  thread  produced,  and  so  uniform  and 
reliable  is  the  quality,  that  it  alone  of  all  the  fac- 
tories of  Japan  is  able  to  export  its  product  direct  to 
the  United  States,  which  buys  the  entire  output  at 
an  annual  cost  of  about  $500,000  and  without  in- 
termediate inspection  at  Yokohama.” 

The  efforts  of  Nevertheless,  high  as  are  the  points 
Christian  reached  by  some  individual  factories, 

workers.  the  mean  level  of  Japan’s  industrial 

plane  is  low,  and  the  life  of  the  great  majority  of 
factory  girls  not  only  involves  great  hardship,  but 
saps  the  vitality  and  health  of  body,  mind,  and 
spirit.  Efforts  have  been  made  by  many  Christian 
workers  in  industrial  centers  to  help  and  safeguard 
the  girls  in  the  factories,  but  the  amount  which  they 
are  able  to  do  is  almost  wholly  dependent  on  the 
attitude  of  the  factory  owners.  Sometimes  they  are 
cordially  welcomed  and  freely  allowed  to  serve  the 
girls,  but  in  other  cases  the  stockades  are  as  effectual 
in  keeping  the  would-be  helpers  out  as  in  keeping  the 
girls  in.  Sometimes  the  girls  are  permitted  to  attend 
evening  classes  and  night  schools  carried  on  by 
Christian  workers,  but  frequently  they  are  not  free  to 
do  so.  A few  homes  are  being  carried  on  by  Chris- 
tians for  girls  who  are  not  required  to  live  in  the 
factory  dormitories,  and  some  of  these  have  rendered 
such  valuable  service  that  not  only  have  they  become 
widely  and  favorably  known,  but  have  even  received 


THE  WAGE  EARNERS 


71 

annual  grants  of  money  from  the  Government.  One 
of  the  best-known  and  most  successful  of  these  Chris- 
tian homes  is  that  carried  on  in  Matsuyama  by  Mr. 
Omoto.  A few  Japanese  young  women,  too,  whose 
Christian  education  has  planted  deep  within  them 
the  purpose  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minis- 
ter, have  given  themselves  to  work  for  the  girls  of 
the  factories.  One  such  is  Miss  Hattori,  a graduate 
of  the  Methodist  girls’  school  of  Tokyo,  who,  after 
special  study  at  the  Women’s  University,  and  a 
careful  investigation  of  the  factories  in  Tokyo, 
accepted  a position  as  matron  in  a large  cotton- 
spinning factory  of  Osaka. 

All  such  efforts  as  these  are  thoroughly  good,  and 
it  is  earnestly  to  be  hoped  that  much  more  will  be 
done  along  this  line  in  the  future.  But  such  work  as 
this  cannot  at  best  do  much  more  than  touch  in- 
dividual factories  here  and  there,  and  make  things 
better  for  the  girls  of  certain  communities.  We 
cannot  rest  content  with  anything  which  stops  short 
of  abolishing  evils  and  raising  standards  throughout 
the  entire  industrial  world  of  Japan.  Prof.  Amos 
S.  Hershey  of  the  University  of  Indiana,  after  a 
thorough  study  of  industrial  conditions  in  Japan,  de- 
clares: “We  submit  that  it  is  not  enough  to  carry  the 
Gospel  to  tired,  exhausted  factory  girls  who  have  been 
working  on  their  feet  for  twelve  hours  or  more  under 
the  most  depressing  environment.  Something  should 
be  done  to  change  this  environment  or  to  modify  or 
abolish  a system  which  dooms  half  a million  Japa- 
nese girls  and  young  women  to  a life  which  is  destruc- 
tive, or  morally  and  physically  injurious,  to  many 
thousands  of  them  each  year.” 


72  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

Factory  legis-  Right  legislation  would,  of  course,  go 
lation  in  japan.  far  toward  improving  matters.  Where 
there  is  no  such  legislation,  any  factory  owner  can 
demand  the  greatest  possible  amount  of  labor  for  the 
smallest  possible  return,  can  force  his  employees  to 
work  and  live  under  the  most  injurious  conditions, 
can  economize  on  safety  devices  at  the  cost  of  human 
life  and  limb,  and  no  one  can  say  him  nay.  The 
Japanese  Government  has  realized  this,  and  has  made 
an  effort  to  prevent  certain  evils,  by  law.  A few  years 
ago  three  laws  were  passed  through  the  Diet,  laws 
which  leave  much  to  be  desired,  and  do  not  even 
touch  many  urgent  problems,  but  which  are  good  as 
far  as  they  go.  These  laws  were  passed  with  the 
understanding  that  they  should  not  go  into  effect 
for  several  years,  in  order  that  the  factory  owners 
might  have  time  to  adjust  themselves  to  the  new 
demands.  The  laws,  as  they  stand,  are  in  brief: 

1.  Work  by  children  under  twelve  years  of 
age  is  forbidden. 

2.  The  working  day  of  children  under  fifteen 
and  of  women  must  not  exceed  twelve  hours. 

3.  Work  by  children  under  fifteen,  and  by 
women,  is  forbidden  between  the  hours  of 
10  P.  M.  and  4 A.  M. 

These  laws  were  expected  to  become  operative  in 
1916,  but  when  the  time  came  the  capitalists  beg- 
ged for  still  further  postponement,  urging  that  the 
European  war,  and  the  consequent  paralysis  of  in- 
dustry in  the  warring  nations,  was  giving  them  their 
great  opportunity  to  establish  Japan  on  a strong 
commercial  basis,  and  that  the  necessity  of  obeying 
these  three  meagre  laws  would  seriously  interfere 


RRIDGE-PARTY”  OF  JAPANESE  WOMEN 


THE  WAGE  EARNERS 


73 


with  success.  The  Government  yielded  to  this  plea, 
at  what  cost  of  human  life  and  strength  and  of 
Japan’s  future  it  is  impossible  to  estimate.  Prof. 
Hershey’s  statement  is  strong,  but  no  statement  can 
well  be  too  strong. 

“We  consider  the  factory  system  of 

The  indictment.  T . . . . , J \ . 

Japan  with  its  long  hours,  night  work, 
low  wages,  and  unhealthy  environment  even  a 
greater  menace  to  the  country  than  its  slums  and 
Yoshiwaras.  These  latter,  indeed,  constitute  plague 
spots  or  festering  sores  on  the  body  social  of  the  most 
serious  description,  but  the  factory  system  of  Japan, 
which  demands  an  annual  sacrifice  of  many  thous- 
ands of  children  and  young  women,  is  a dangerous 
menace  to  the  future  of  the  Japanese  race.  In  its 
last  analysis  it  is  a problem  in  eugenics,  for  it  is  a 
system  which  attacks  motherhood  as  well  as  child- 
hood, since  it  injures  or  destroys  the  future  mothers 
of  the  race  and  the  children  of  Japan,  at  the  most 
important  period  in  their  physical  and  moral  develop- 
ment.” 


Mr.  Fisher  speaks  truly  when  he  says, 
“The  personal  ministry  already  under- 
taken on  behalf  of  factory  workers  by  Christian 
workers,  and  the  local  regulations  in  certain  cities, 
are  good  as  far  as  they  go,  but  they  do  not  touch  the 
heart  of  the  problem.  Nothing  but  strong,  enlight- 
ened public  opinion,  engendered  and  guided  by 
Christians  and  other  progressive  men,  will  suffice  to 
secure  the  thorough-going  legislation  required  to  put 
an  end  to  this  blot  upon  Japan’s  good  name  and  this 
menace  to  her  future.” 


74 


WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 


The  geisha. 


No  story  of  the  women  wage  earners 
of  Japan  would  be  complete,  which 
contained  no  mention  of  the  thirty  thousand  or  more 
women  and  girls  known  as  geisha , which,  being 
interpreted,  means — “accomplished  person.”  The  ac- 
complishments in  which  the  geisha  is  trained  are  the 
playing  of  the  samisen  (a  sort  of  guitar),  singing, 
dancing,  and  repartee.  Little  girls  destined  as  geisha 
begin  a prolonged  and  rigid  training  in  these  arts 
when  they  are  but  eight  or  nine  years  old,  and  by  the 
time  they  are  fifteen  or  sixteen  are  ready  to  join  the 
ranks  of  gorgeously  gowned,  painted  and  powdered 
women,  who  are  so  much  in  demand  as  entertainers 
of  men  at  almost  all  large  social  functions.  Out- 
wardly the  life  of  the  geisha  bears  no  resemblance  to 
that  of  the  factory  girl.  Dressed  in  the  richest  silks 
of  the  most  vivid  colors,  her  dancing  and  witty  con- 
versation applauded  by  wealthy  and  educated  men, 
her  photograph  displayed  for  sale  in  the  shop  win- 
dows, her  earnings  of  one  night  far  exceeding  that  of 
the  factory  girl’s  wages  for  a month — surely  the 
geisha  has  nothing  in  common  with  the  girl  who  plods 
dully  along  in  the  factory  day  after  day.  Yet  hard 
work,  temptation,  danger,  and  heartsickness  are  the 
common  lot  of  both  these  wage-earning  women  of 
Japan. 

The  life  of  the  geisha , says  Dr.  Gulick,  is  “piti- 
ful in  the  extreme.  Chosen  from  among  the  families 
of  the  poor  on  the  basis  of  their  prospective  good 
looks  and  ability  to  learn,  they  leave  their  homes 
at  an  early  age,  and  are  subjected  to  severe  drill 
....  They  go  through  their  lessons  with  rigid, 
mechanical  accuracy.  ...  As  a rule  nothing  is 


THE  WAGE  EARNERS  75 

done  to  develop  their  minds  and,  of  course,  the 
cultivation  of  personal  character  is  not  even  thought 
of.  They  are  instructed  in  flippant  conversation  and 
pungent  retort,  that  they  may  converse  interestingly 
with  the  men  for  whose  entertainment  they  are  alone 
designed.  The  songs  learned,  some  of  the  dances 
performed,  and  the  conversational  repertoire  ac- 
quired are  commonly  reported  to  be  highly  licentious, 
but  these  are  the  gei  that  best  please  the  men,  to 
whom  they  are  open  for  private  engagement  from 
the  time  they  are  eighteen  years  of  age.  ...  So 
far  as  is  known  to  me,  no  regular  Christian  or  philan- 
thropic work  is  done  for  this  class.” 

Two  things  there  are  which  must  come  in  Japan 
if  many  of  her  most  beautiful  girl  children  are  not  to 
be  forced  to  support  themselves  as  geisha.  Christian 
ideals  must  so  permeate  the  nation  that  public 
opinion  will  put  an  end  to  the  entire  custom.  And 
the  abundant  life  which  Jesus  Christ  came  to  give 
must  be  so  brought  to  the  women  of  Japan  that  there 
will  be  no  need  of  a special  group  of  women,  definitely 
trained  and  set  aside  as  conversationlists  and  enter- 
tainers. Says  Dr.  Gulick,  “The  national  custom 
which  predetermines  the  social  incompetence  of  the 
majority  of  cultured  women  compensates  for  the 
loss  by  providing  t\\&  geisha  class.  Not  until  Japanese 
ladies  can  hold  their  own  in  social  life  will  the  voca- 
tion of  the  geisha  be  ended.” 


76 


WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 


Christian  Missions  and  Women’s  Industries 

The  girls  in  the  rug  factories  of  Turkey,  the  cotton  mills  of 
Bombay,  the  factories  of  Shanghai,  and  the  great  industrial 
plants  of  Japan  are  not  the  only  women  of  the  Orient  who  are 
earning  their  way  by  the  work  of  their  hands.  Scattered  through- 
out the  East  are  little  groups  of  women  whose  fingers  have 
learned  their  skill  under  the  patient  tutelage  of  women  mis- 
sionaries, and  who  are  supporting  themselves  and  sometimes 
others,  by  their  beautiful  needlework,  laces,  embroideries,  drawn 
work,  etc. 

The  mission  industrial  plants  are  for  the  most  part  of  com- 
paratively recent  origin  and  have  usually  arisen  in  answer  to  an 
immediate  and  urgent  need.  Such  a one  is,  for  example,  the  work 
at  Oorfa,  built  up  by  the  initiative  of  one  courageous  missionary. 
Miss  Corinna  Shattuck.  In  1895,  Oorfa  was  a city  of  desolation. 
The  ruthless  slaughter  of  the  Armenian  men  had  left  a host  of 
women  and  children  grief-stricken,  destitute,  and  helpless.  With 
nothing  in  the  world  save  the  clothes  they  wore,  they  crowded 
the  mission  stations,  seeking  help.  Temporary  relief  came 
through  the  gifts  of  the  compassionate  in  many  parts  of  the 
world,  but  there  was  need  of  more  permanent  help  of  a kind 
which  would  enable  these  untrained  and  helpless  women  to 
support  themselves  and  their  children.  Then  it  was  that  Miss 
Shattuck,  “with  the  skill  of  a daring  pioneer,  ushered  into  Oorfa 
the  crusade  of  women’s  labor  that  has  changed  that  city,  bereft 
of  the  Christian  male  population,  into  a busy  city  of  women’s 
industries.  The  story  of  it  all  reads  like  a fairy  tale.  The  start 
was  made  at  the  mission  house.  In  a small  room  off  the  girls’ 
dormitory,  women  and  girls  between  fourteen  and  forty  began 
making  embroideries.  In  another  room  others  made  handker- 
chiefs and  fine  lace  edgings.  Miss  Shattuck  personally  super- 
intended all.  She  planned  the  work  and  taught  a few,  who  in 
turn  taught  others,  and  every  piece  when  finished  was  thoroughly 
examined  by  her  and  ordered  revised  if  not  well  done.”  In  little 
more  than  ten  years  after  this  small  beginning,  sixteen  thousand 
dozen  handkerchiefs  were  being  exported  from  Miss  Shattuck’s 
mission  every  year,  and  1824  women  were  finding  employment 
and  self-support  in  the  handkerchief  and  embroidery  work.  The 


THE  WAGE  EARNER6 


77 

industry  had  spread  from  Oorfa  to  the  neighboring  towns  and 
branch  industries  were  working  successfully  in  Garmooch, 
Birijik,  Severek,  and  Adayaman. 

The  industrial  work  done  under  the  Methodist  mission  in 
Foochow  also  began  as  a work  of  relief  for  women  in  great  need. 
Some  years  ago  a young  Christian  widow  fled  to  her  former 
teacher,  Miss  Bonafield,  in  dire  distress.  Her  uncle,  under  whose 
authority  she  had  come  at  the  death  of  her  husband,  was  un- 
willing to  be  burdened  with  her  support  and  was  planning  to 
sell  her  to  any  man  who  would  pay  his  price.  Miss  Bonafield  was 
able  to  save  the  girl  only  by  promising  her  uncle  that  she  would 
never  ask  him  for  any  financial  help.  Then  the  problem  of  how 
the  girl  could  earn  her  own  living  arose.  She  could  embroider 
beautifully  and  Miss  Bonafield  sent  some  of  her  work  to  Ameri- 
ca to  be  sold.  Other  widows,  young  and  old,  in  poverty  and  dis- 
tress, came  pleading  for  similar  help  and  Miss  Bonafield  formed 
them  into  a little  Industrial  School.  With  the  coming  to  Foochow 
of  Miss  Jean  Adams,  who  was  able  to  give  her  entire  time  to  the 
industrial  work,  the  little  school  grew  into  a large  one,  its  scope 
was  enlarged,  and  now  the  Foochow  embroideries  and  drawn 
work  are  widely  known  even  in  America. 

Practically  every  mission  orphanage,  too,  is  an  industrial 
school.  A typical  orphanage  is  the  one  carried  on  by  the  Metho- 
dist Mission  at  Phalera,  India.  There  the  girls  not  only  do  the 
housework,  but  learn  to  spin,  twist  thread,  weave  cloth,  blankets 
and  carpets,  mold  bricks,  make  paper  baskets  and  grass  brooms, 
and  become  expert  in  embroidery,  lace  making,  plain  and  fancy 
sewing,  and  drawn  work. 

Many  girls’  schools  have  industrial  departments.  In  Sendai, 
Japan,  for  example,  the  girls  of  one  mission  school  are  taught 
“needle-work,  flower-making,  silk-raising,  and  poultry-breeding.’’ 
Moreover,  in  practically  all  mission  schools  the  students  become 
expert  in  household  arts  by  doing  much  of  the  work  of  the  school 
home.  Sweeping,  cleaning,  even  some  of  the  cooking,  are  a part 
of  their  regular  day’s  work. 

Truly  it  is  of  the  essence  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  that 
nothing  that  makes  life  fuller  or  finer  should  be  untouched  by  it. 
Hands  are  certain  to  grow  more  skilled,  even  as  minds  become 
keener  and  characters  stronger  and  more  beautiful,  wherever  the 
Good  News  is  carried. 


78 


WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 


QUESTIONS  ON  CHAPTER  II. 

Aim  of  study: — To  show  the  magnitude  and  urgency  of  the 
industrial  problem  of  the  East,  and  to  discover  our  responsi- 
bility toward  it. 

1.  Is  tne  earning  of  wages  by  unskilled  labor,  done  outside 
the  home,  a new  thing  for  the  women  of  the  Orient? 

2.  What  new  conditions  are  being  created  in  the  life  of  the 
women  of  the  Orient,  by  the  introduction  of  modern  machinery? 

3.  Do  you  think  that  the  Oriental  women  in  industry  are 
likely  to  decrease  or  increase  in  numbers? 

4 In  what  Oriental  country  is  the  industrial  problem  most 
acute? 

5.  In  what  Oriental  country  do  you  think  industries  are 
likely  to  develop  most  rapidly  in  the  future? 

6.  If  you  had  the  power  to  legislate  regarding  the  conditions 
of  work  of  the  factory  women  of  India,  what  changes  would  you 
make? 

7.  Are  these  women  being  touched  by  Christian  missionary 
work  and,  if  so,  how  ? 

8.  What  elements  in  the  industrial  situation  in  China  make 
the  appeal  for  immediate  thought  and  effort  on  the  part  of 
Christian  people  so  urgent? 

9.  What  seems  to  you  the  solution  of  the  industrial  evils  in 
China,  and  how  can  it  be  achieved? 

10.  What  proportion  of  the  factory  workers  of  Japan  are 
women?  How  does  this  proportion  compare  with  that  of  other 
countries? 

11.  How  do  the  hours,  wages,  and  conditions  of  work  of  the 
factory  girls  of  Japan  compare  with  those  of  the  United  States? 

12.  How  does  the  legislation  regarding  factory  workers  in 
Japan  compare  with  that  of  your  state? 

13.  What  effect  do  you  think  the  conditions  of  the  factory 
girls  of  your  state,  and  the  legislation  regarding  them,  have  on 
Japan? 

1 4.  What  effect  would  you  expect  life  in  the  average  factory 
of  Japan  to  have  upon  a girl’s  health?  Upon  her  character? 

15.  What  effect  upon  the  future  of  Japan  will  her  factory 
system  have,  if  conditions  and  legislation  remain  as  they  are  at 
present? 


THE  WAGE  EARNERS  79 

1 6.  Is  your  Mission  Board  undertaking  any  work  on  behalf 
of  these  factory  girls?  If  so,  what? 

17.  Do  you  think  that  the  work  of  the  mission  schools  for 
girls  has  any  relation  to  the  needs  of  the  factory  girls  of  Japan? 
If  so,  what? 

18.  How  do  you  think  the  Christian  forces  can  best  help  to 
remedy  the  evils  of  the  industrial  life  of  Japan? 

19.  What  seem  to  you  the  worst  features  of  the  life  of  the 
geisha? 

20.  What  fundamental  changes  must  there  be  in  Japanese 
thought  and  society  if  the  system  of  geisha  is  to  be  abolished  ? 


CHAPTER  III. 


Suggested  Scripture  Reading. 

The  Program  of  the  New  Day.  Luke  4:  16-21. 

Broadening  Horizons. 

In  Moslem  Lands: 

The  progressive  men  are 

Speaking  and  writing  in  favor  of  a freer  life  for  women; 
Sending  the  girls  to  school; 

Promoting  the  cause  of  women’s  education. 

The  women  themselves  are  beginning 
To  long  for  more  abundant  life; 

To  protest  against  the  veil; 

To  combat  polygamy; 

To  seek  education  for  themselves  and  their  daughters. 

In  India: 

The  great  mass  of  men  despise  women,  but  some  are  urging 
The  education  of  girls; 

Home  classes,  lectures,  and  clubs  for  women; 

The  raising  of  the  age  of  marriage; 

The  relaxation  of  the  purdah  system; 

The  remarriage  of  widows. 

The  great  mass  of  women  are  ignorant,  but  some  are 
Venturing  out  from  behind  the  purdah; 

Desiring  education; 

Courageously  championing  the  cause  of  women  in  public. 
In  China: 

A new  social  order  for  women  has  dawned; 

Many  Chinese  men  are  changing  their  ideals  for  women; 
Many  Chinese  women  are  reaching  out  for  fuller  life; 
The  transition  period  is  full  of  dangers  and  opportunities. 

In  Japan: 

Economic  conditions  are  forcing  a new  life  upon  women; 
Western  novels,  plays,  etc.,  are  giving  distorted  impressions 
of  the  life  of  the  women  of  the  Occident. 

In  all  the  countries: 

There  is  only  one  safe  Guide  to  the  new  life. 


CHAPTER  III. 


BROADENING  HORIZONS 

“You  know,”  said  an  old  Moham- 
medan sheikh , not  long  ago,  to  the 
head  of  the  American  mission  school  for  girls  in 
Alexandria,  “we  do  not  care  to  have  our  daughters 
stay  in  school  very  long.”  But  quick  as  a flash  came 
the  correction  of  the  young  Egyptian  bey  who  was 
with  him.  “No!  that  is  past.  Our  country  can  never 
be  great  until  our  women  are  properly  taught.”  The 
two  statements  fairly  represent  the  old  and  the  new 
Orient.  Many  parents  there  are,  especially  in  the 
smaller  towns  and  villages  of  the  interior,  away  from 
the  beaten  tracks  of  travel  and  the  direct  influence 
of  western  lands,  who  do  not  care  to  have  their 
daughters  “stay  in  school  very  long,”  if,  indeed, 
they  are  willing  to  have  them  go  to  school  at  all. 
But  in  every  Oriental  country  today  there  are  also 
the  others,  younger  usually,  though  sometimes  their 
youth  is  of  the  spirit  more  than  of  the  flesh,  who 
have  perhaps  traveled,  and  sought  for  the  explanation 
of  the  differences  they  have  seen  between  their  own 
and  other  countries;  who  have  read  and  studied  and 
pondered,  and  have  unerringly  traced  many  of  the 
greatest  weaknesses  in  the  social  and  national  life 
of  the  East  to  its  low  estimate  of  women, 
in  Mohamme-  The  young  Egyptian  bey  is  one  of 
dan  lands.  an  ever-increasing  company  of  the 

present  generation  of  men  in  Mohammedan  coun- 
tries who  are  earnest  champions  of  the  cause  of  more 
abundant  life  for  women.  A prominent  Mohamme- 


The  old  and 
new  Orient. 


82  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

dan  recently  published  a book  on  the  emancipation 
of  women  which  was  widely  read.  Another  writer 
recently  brought  out  a book  frankly  entitled  The 
New  Woman.  Many  of  the  leading  newspapers  in 
Egypt,  Persia,  and  Turkey  have  devoted  many  of 
their  columns  to  articles  and  discussions  on  the 
subject  of  the  Mohammedan  woman  and  the  amount 
of  freedom  which  should  be  accorded  her.  One 
Persian  newspaper  not  long  ago  expressed  its  sym- 
pathy with  the  efforts  of  Persian  women  toward 
greater  freedom  by  a vivid  cartoon,  picturing  a 
Persian  woman  in  European  dress,  the  ancient  veil 
discarded,  struggling  in  the  hands  of  a man  who, 
with  uplifted  club,  was  trying  to  drag  her  backward. 

But  the  actions  of  the  progressive  men  of  Moham- 
medan lands  speak  louder  than  their  words.  There 
was  organized  in  Turkey  a few  years  ago,  a society 
the  purpose  of  which  was  to  promote  public  opinion 
against  the  wearing  of  the  veil.  The  membership 
of  this  society  was  composed  not  of  wearers  of  the 
veil,  but  of  young  husbands,  brothers,  and  fathers! 
The  education  Most  convincing  evidence  of  a genu- 
of  girls.  ine  desire  on  the  part  of  the  men  for  a 

freer  and  fuller  life  for  women  is  the  new  attitude 
toward  the  education  of  girls  which  exists  through- 
out the  Near  East  today.  Miss  Annie  Van  Sommers 
of  Egypt  reported  in  1910:  “A  few  years  ago  it  was 
hard  to  get  parents  to  allow  their  girls  to  come  to 
school  at  all.  When  they  did  come,  they  were  not 
allowed  to  remain  long,  and  were  married  at  the  age 
of  twelve.  But  now  we  find  the  government  trying 
to  encourage  female  education  by  giving  higher 
grants  for  girls  than  for  boys  in  subsidizing  village 


BROADENING  HORIZONS  83 

schools.  They  have  also  established  girls’  schools 
in  the  chief  towns.  . . . The  age  of  marriage  is  also 
rising,  especially  in  the  upper  classes,  so  that  their 
daughters  have  more  opportunity  of  being  edu- 
cated.” 

“Ten  years  ago,”  wrote  a missionary  in  Persia, 
in  1912,  “the  American  mission  school  had  half  a 
dozen  Moslem  girls  among  its  Armenian  pupils,  and 
there  was  not  a native  school  for  Persian  girls  in 
Teheran.  This  year  the  American  school  has  en- 
rolled more  than  160  Persian  girls  alone,  and  there 
are  said  to  be  seventy  girls’  schools  in  the  city  with  a 
total  enrollment  of  five  thousand.” 

“Before  the  Constitution  little  attention  was  paid 
to  the  education  of  girls,”  an  American  teacher  in 
Turkey  wrote  in  1914.  “According  to  a recent  state- 
ment from  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction,  the 
Turkish  government  is  now  constantly  endeavoring 
to  extend  and  to  perfect  the  instruction  given  to 
girls,  and  to  fit  it  to  the  progress  and  civilization  of 
the  present  century— in  fact,  to  modernize  it  com- 
pletely. It  is  with  this  aim  that  it  has  been  decided 
to  establish  numerous  lycees,  schools  for  teachers, 
and  schools  for  domestic  training.  The  government 
is  working  in  every  way  for  the  intellectual  and  moral 
development  of  the  future  wives  and  mothers  of 
Turkey.” 

In  Turkey  many  of  the  leading  men  are  not  satis- 
fied with  the  elementary  or  even  the  high-school 
course  which  would  have  seemed,  a few  years  ago,  a 
very  unusual  amount  of  education  for  a Mohamme- 
dan girl,  but  wish  to  have  their  daughters  go  on 
to  college  or  professional  school.  Dr.  Mary  Mills 


84  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

Patrick,  president  of  the  Constantinople  College  for 
girls,  said  in  1910,  “All  prominent  Turkish  patriots  at 
the  present  time  express  themselves  with  great 
enthusiasm  regarding  the  necessity  for  the  higher 
education  of  Turkish  women.”  And  this  enthusiasm 
has  persisted  even  through  these  last  years  of 
devastating  war.  In  1916,  290  girls  were  enrolled 
in  the  Constantinople  College  for  girls,  sixty-three 
of  them  Turks,  among  whom  were  fourteen  whose 
tuition  was  paid  by  the  Turkish  government. 
Another  was  a granddaughter  of  the  late  Grand 
Vizier,  Kiamil  Pasha.  The  total  enrollment  of  the 
school  in  1917  was  four  hundred. 

One  of  the  most  conclusive  evidences  of  the  grow- 
ing belief  in  the  higher  education  of  women  was 
given  when,  in  1914,  the  Imperial  University  in 
Stamboul  opened  its  doors  to  women.  No  definite 
registration  was  required,  the  work  offered  women 
being  entirely  in  the  nature  of  University  extension 
work,  but  the  plans  outlined  provided  for  a regular 
program  which  all  students  must  follow,  and  for  a 
definite  entrance  requirement.  The  lectures  offered 
were  on  history,  pedagogy,  hygiene,  domestic  econo- 
my, and  the  “rights  of  women,”  and  were  given  by 
the  professors  of  the  University  and  other  prominent 
specialists.  A promise  was  also  made  that  women 
should  soon  be  admitted  to  a course  in  the  medical 
school.  The  war  has,  of  course,  broken  in  upon  these 
plans,  but  the  fact  that  so  good  a beginning  was  made 
augurs  well  for  the  future. 

New  ambitions  Contact  with  western  nations  and 
of  Mohammedan  missionary  homes  has  given  to  many 
fathers.  a young  Mohammedan  a new  ideal 


BROADENING  HORIZONS 


85 

of  companionship  in  the  home,  which  only  an 
educated  wife  will  satisfy.  And  to  many  an  older 
man  these  things  have  brought  the  startling  thought 
that  daughters  with  trained  minds  may  be  to  him 
as  truly  a joy  and  crown  of  glorying  as  sons.  “I  wish 
my  wife  had  been  educated,”  wistfully  remarked  a 
visitor  to  the  American  girls’  school  in  Teheran  not 
long  ago.  But  his  face  cleared  as  he  added,  “I  want 
my  daughter  to  take  her  diploma  and  then  give  her 
life  to  educational  work  for  the  women  of  Persia.” 
Even  more  amazing  in  its  evidence  of  a new  and 
startlingly  different  ideal  for  a Turkish  girl  was  the 
request  of  the  father  of  a student  of  the  Constanti- 
nople College.  “Please  give  her  special  training  in 
public  speaking,”  he  requested,  “for  I wish  her, 
after  she  graduates,  to  go  into  the  interior  and  give 
addresses  to  the  Mohammedan  women.”  And  there 
is  something  very  touching  and  very  thrilling  in  the 
report  of  a Persian  father  who  journeyed  from 
Urumiah  to  Russia  not  long  ago,  bearing  with  him  a 
precious  package  containing  the  manuscript  of  a 
little  elementary  school  book  on  hygiene  and  general 
science.  The  author  of  that  book  was  his  little 
fifteen-year-old  daughter,  and  her  proud  parent  was 
confident  that  a Russian  publisher  had  only  to  see 
it  to  accept  it. 

The  women  Most  significant  of  all  the  signs  of  the 
themselves.  times  in  Mohammedan  lands  is  the 
attitude  of  the  women  themselves.  Centuries  of 
enforced  seclusion,  ignorance,  and  indolence  have 
failed  to  crush  their  longings  for  life,  in  place  of  mere 
existence.  There  may  possibly  have  been  com- 
parative contentment  when  there  was  no  thought 


86  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

or  dream  of  any  other  life  possible  for  women.  But 
in  days  like  these  when  contact  with  missionaries 
and  travelers,  books,  magazines,  and  many  other 
influences  are  making  it  impossible  for  any  part  of 
the  world  family  to  live  wholly  apart  from  the 
knowledge  of  how  the  other  members  live,  there  is 
definite  discontent  among  many  of  even  the  most 
secluded  Mohammedan  women. 

Freedom  is  the  heart’s  desire  of  a great  host  today, 
the  shining  dream  which  fills  their  thoughts  and  is 
the  goal  of  all  their  seeking.  It  is  a desire  and  a dream 
with  which  no  one  of  us  could  fail  to  sympathize 
were  they  seeking  freedom  simply  for  the  sake  of 
claiming  their  birthright  to  know  the  beauty  of  the 
world  in  which  they  live  and  the  joys  of  human 
companionship.  But  to  the  lasting  honor  of  many  of 
these  women  of  the  Near  East  be  it  said  that  “the 
soul-wrecking  comfort  of  the  harem’’  has  not  availed 
to  kill  in  them  the  spirit  of  service.  They  are  seeking 
to  be  saved  from  a fettered,  empty,  joyless  life — yes; 
but  in  many  a one  of  them  there  is  the  conscious, 
definite  longing  to  be  saved  in  order  to  serve.  One  of 
them,  Ulviye  Mevlane  Hanoum,  recently  voiced  in 
The  Women  s World  of  Constantinople  the  thoughts 
and  purposes  which  are  perhaps  more  or  less  inartic- 
ulate, but  very  genuinely  existent,  in  the  minds  and 
hearts  of  many  Mohammedan  women. 

“Love  in  any  true  sense  is  a stranger  in  our  homes. 
Respect,  companionship,  are  outside  of  our  ex- 
perience. Yet  we  have  the  ambition  to  do  what  only 
women  can,  to  perpetuate  and  increase  in  physical 
numbers  and  strength  the  race  to  which  we  belong. 
It  is  not  enough  for  us  to  be  content  with  that.  That 


BROADENING  HORIZONS  87 

is  not  the  happiness  to  which  we  have  the  right  and 
the  duty  to  aspire  and  to  claim.  Much  less  may  we 
content  ourselves  with  that  selfish  languor  so  often 
found  in  the  harems  of  the  rich.  We  have  no  right  to 
expect  others  to  make  us  happy  while  we  do  not  un- 
selfishly gird  ourselves  to  make  others  happy  and 
worthy  of  their  place,  as  our  life’s  chief  aim.  The 
fault  is  not  in  our  stars,  but  in  ourselves,  if  we  fail  of 
attaining  to  happiness.  Our  men  are  seeing  more 
clearly  today  than  ever  before  that  the  welfare  and 
success  of  our  people  in  the  coming  years  depend 
very  greatly  upon  us,  the  mothers  and  daughters  of 
our  race.  Emancipation,  education,  elevation  in- 
tellectually and  morally — this  is  to  be  our  cherished 
desire,  our  purpose.  The  question  is  not,  ‘Who  will 
make  us  happy?’  but  ‘How  can  we  be  most  useful 
to  our  people  and  our  fatherland?’  ” 

Significant  Certain  things  there  are  which  the 

changes.  awakened  women  of  the  Near  East  are 

definitely  seeking  for  themselves  and  one  another. 
Prominent  among  them  is  a costume  of  a kind  which 
will  not  prevent  them  from  taking  the  part  for  which 
they  long  in  the  life  of  the  world.  “When  the  New 
Woman  in  Persia  awoke,”  writes  Miss  Stocking, 
“being  still  a woman,  she  straightway  thought  of  her 
appearance  and  made  some  significant  changes  in 
her  dress.  Seen  on  the  street  she  is  still  enveloped 
from  head  to  foot  in  the  long  black  skirt  or  chuddar , 
but  in  place  of  the  troublesome  face  veil  of  white 
cloth  she  wears  a small  square  of  black  net  or  woven 
horse  hair,  which  conceals  her  features  perfectly  and 
is  far  more  comfortable.  ...  At  first  there  was  much 
talk  of  abandoning  the  veil  entirely.  This  is  still  a 


88  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

cherished  dream  of  Persian  women,  but  they  have 
come  to  realize  that  it  is  not  time  yet  for  this  radical 
step,  that  at  present  to  go  with  uncovered  faces 
would  but  put  them  at  the  mercy  of  evil-minded 
men.” 

Some  of  the  women  of  Turkey,  however,  are  de- 
termined not  only  that  the  veil  must  go,  but  that  it 
must  go  soon.  When  the  Constitution  was  pro- 
claimed in  Turkey  in  1908,  thousands  of  women  dis- 
carded their  veils  in  the  confident  expectation  that 
a new  era  of  freedom  for  them  as  well  as  their  hus- 
bands had  begun.  But  only  for  a very  few  weeks 
were  they  allowed  such  liberty.  Word  was  sent  out 
that  their  religion  did  not  permit  the  removal  of  the 
veil,  and  public  opinion  compelled  them  to  replace  it 
though  they  did  so  most  reluctantly.  Then  came  the 
second  revolution  and  again  the  women  dared  to 
hope  that  the  emblem  of  the  old,  restricted  life  of 
Mohammedan  women  might  be  removed.  Five 
hundred  of  them  went  to  the  ministers  and  an- 
nounced that  they  intended  to  discontinue  wearing 
the  veil.  The  reply  was:  “You  may  do  it,  but  the 
responsibility  will  be  yours.  We  shall  not  defend 
you  if  you  suffer  for  it.”  And  again  the  women 
dared  not  openly  discard  the  veil.  But  in  the  mean- 
time they  are  not  resting  in  passive  submission  to 
the  decrees  of  the  powers  that  be. 

“To  transform  the  outdoor  costume  of  Turkish 
women,”  is  the  first  of  the  seven  aims  of  “The 
Society  for  the  Defense  of  Women’s  Rights,”  a 
society  of  Turkish  women  which  is  working  ener- 
getically and  effectively  to  bring  in  a new  day  for  the 
women  of  the  Near  East,  And  the  proposed  outdoor 


Copyright  by  Underwood  and  Underwood,  N.  Y. 


CHILD  LABOR  IN  THE  FACTORIES  OF  TURKEY 


BROADENING  HORIZONS  89 

costume  is  not  to  include  even  the  net  or  horse-hair 
square  worn  by  the  women  of  Persia.  Ulviye  Han- 
oum,  one  of  the  leading  spirits  in  this  progressive 
organization,  states  that  the  society  “will  prepare 
several  costumes  in  different  fashions,  free  from  or- 
nament or  any  objectionable  features,  entirely  in 
accordance  with  the  requirements  of  the  Koran,  and 
submit  them  to  the  government  for  its  approval.  In 
these  proposed  costumes  the  veil  shall  be  discarded, 
because  the  Koran  does  not  require  it,  and  the  shawl 
will  be  so  modified  as  to  render  it  both  serviceable 
and  graceful.”  “A  woman  with  a veil,”  Madame 
Ulviye  goes  on  to  say,  “cannot  develop  individuality 
and  bring  out  her  best  possible  powers.  . . . We 
maintain  that  the  veil  is  not  only  a silly  anachronism, 
but  it  is  an  insult  to  the  intelligence  and  reliability 
of  the  Turkish  woman;  it  also  reflects  discreditably 
upon  the  moral  and  mental  makeup  of  our  men. 
Veil  and  shawl  must  go.” 

Another  evil  of  the  Mohammedan  woman’s  life 
which  the  “new”  women  of  the  Near  East  are  eager 
to  do  away  with  is  polygamy.  They  are  lifting  their 
voices  in  vigorous  protest  against  it,  though  with 
the  realization  that  it  will  not  be  easily  abolished. 
“As  the  veil  is  a badge  of  inferiority  and  slavery,  so 
polygamy  is  a moral  monstrosity,”  Madame  Ulviye 
declares,  but  admits,  “Unfortunately,  however, 
polygamy  is  not  a custom;  it  is  a part  of  the  Koranic 
law.  The  use  of  the  veil  is  a custom  only.  Do  we 
women  like  the  practice  of  polygamy?  Most  de- 
cidedly not.  It  is  far  more  shocking  than  the  veil. 
It  stamps  the  woman  as  an  inferior  sort  of  creature 
and  the  man  as  an  animal.  Our  women  and  men 


gO  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

have  the  same  feelings  and  emotions  as  the  women 
and  men  of  the  western  world.  But  it  takes  time  to 
abolish  a fundamental  part  of  a religion.”  Mission- 
aries report,  however,  that  the  protest  of  women  has 
not  been  without  its  effect,  and  that  polygamy  is 
actually  decreasing. 

But  the  thoughtful  Mohammedan  women  recog- 
nize that  the  final  abolition  of  both  the  veil  and  polyg- 
amy will  come  not  because  of  the  protests  of  a few 
enlightened  women,  but  as  a result  of  the  demon- 
strated ability  of  many  women  to  be  the  intelligent 
companions  of  their  husbands,  and  the  wise  and 
strong  guides  of  their  children,  to  play  an  active  and 
helpful  part  in  the  life  of  their  community  and 
nation,  and  to  earn  their  own  livings  if  need  be. 
Eagerness  for  Because  of  this  realization,  many 
education.  Mohammedan  women  are  eagerly 

reaching  out  for  education  for  themselves  and  their 
daughters.  Married  women,  for  whom  school  is  no 
longer  a possibility,  throng  hungrily  to  lectures 
which  will  enlarge  their  outlook,  and  increase  their 
usefulness.  Miss  Gregory  tells  of  a series  of  public 
lectures  given  in  the  Constantinople  College  for  girls 
a few  years  ago,  on  such  subjects  as  “The  Hygiene 
and  Food  of  Children,”  “The  Contagious  Diseases 
of  Children,”  “Tuberculosis  and  its  Prevention,” 
to  which  the  Turkish  ladies  in  the  neighborhood 
were  invited,  and  to  which  they  came  in  good  num- 
bers. There  is  something  very  touching  in  her 
report  of  these  ladies  of  Constantinople  listening 
with  “intelligent  and  courteous  interest”  to  the 
first  lecturer  in  the  series,  but  finding  that  the 
second  lecturer,  “by  grace  of  speaking  more  slowly 


BROADENING  HORIZONS  9I 

and  showing  greater  confidence  in  the  intelligence  of 
his  audience”  won  their  hearts  so  completely  that 
they  begged,  “Are  you  not  going  to  have  a lecture 
next  week,  and  will  not  this  same  gentleman  give  it?” 

Very  significant,  too,  was  the  response  of  the 
women  to  the  opportunities  offered  them  by  the 
Imperial  University  at  Stamboul.  Within  a week 
after  permission  to  attend  certain  lectures  had  been 
given  them,  two  hundred  women  were  enrolled;  and 
as  these  lectures  were  put  in  the  afternoons  in  order 
to  permit  of  the  performance  of  home  duties  in  the 
mornings,  many  married  women  were  among  the 
two  hundred. 

But  it  is  on  their  daughters  that  the  ambitions  of 
the  mothers  of  Mohammedan  countries  are  chiefly 
centered.  They  can  endure  the  limitations  of  their 
own  lives,  if  only  the  doors  to  a larger,  freer  life  may 
be  opened  to  the  younger  women.  It  is  an  appealing 
picture  that  Miss  Stocking  draws  of  the  Persian 
mother  of  today.  “She  does  not  say  quite  as  often 
as  she  did  a few  years  ago,  ‘Oh,  Khanum,  we  Persian 
women  are  nothing  but  savages,’  yet  she  still  speaks 
with  sadness  of  her  own  childhood.  ‘There  were  no 
schools  for  girls  in  our  day;  we  had  no  opportunity.’ 
Or  she  tells  how  she  married  at  the  age  of  ten  or 
twelve,  and  how  good  it  is  that  times  have  changed. 
The  fact  that  her  own  daughter  of  fourteen  or  fifteen 
is  still  in  school  gives  the  mother  a feeling  of  self- 
respect.  . . . The  mother  speaks  of  her  daughters 
with  as  much  pride  as  of  her  sons,  and  is  as  keenly 
interested  in  their  progress.  A few  weeks  ago  I was 
congratulating  a young  mother  on  her  first  born, 
and  added,  ‘I  suppose  you  are  sorry  the  baby  is  not 


92  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

a boy.’  To  my  amazement  she  replied,  ‘What  better 
service  could  I render  my  fatherland  than  to  bring 
up  girls,  for  until  there  are  good  mothers  the  country 
will  make  no  progress.’  ” 

It  is  for  the  sake  of  the  girls  of  today,  the  women  of 
tomorrow,  that  many  a Mohammedan  woman  is 
taking  courageous  steps  into  a life  undreamed  of  by 
her  mother,  and  making  active  efforts  to  promote 
every  cause  which  will  bring  opportunities  for  life 
and  service  to  the  women  of  her  country. 

Woman’s  life  India,  says  Mr.  E.  C.  Carter,  long  a 
m India.  secretary  of  the  Young  Men’s  Chris- 

tian Association  of  India,  “is  a country  where  Hindu- 
ism and  Mohammedanism  have  done  worse  for 
women  than  any  religions  in  any  other  land.” 
Hinduism  with  its  child  marriage,  the  terrible  and 
perpetual  ban  which  it  has  placed  upon  widows,  and 
its  rigid  caste  system;  and  Mohammedanism  with 
its  seclusion  of  thirty  million  of  India’s  women 
within  the  purdah,  have  combined  to  make  the 
achievement  of  abundant  life  more  difficult  for  the 
women  of  India  than  for  any  other  women  in  the 
world.  There  are  more  deep-rooted  prejudices  to 
be  combatted,  more  numerous  and  more  difficult 
obstacles  to  be  overcome,  by  the  woman  of  India 
who  has  caught  a glimpse  of  a larger  life,  than  by  any 
other  woman.  But  more  discouraging  than  any 
obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  women  of  India  is  the  fact 
clearly  pointed  out  by  one  of  India’s  thoughtful  men, 
Mr.  Gokhale,  that  “a  combination  of  enforced 
ignorance  and  overdone  religion  has  not  only  made 
women  in  India  willing  victims  of  customs  unjust 
and  hurtful  in  the  highest  degree,  but  it  has  also 


BROADENING  HORIZONS  93 

made  them  the  most  formidable  because  the  most 
effective  opponents  of  all  change  or  innovation.” 
To  free  a prisoner  in  the  face  of  innumerable  ob- 
stacles is  a difficult  task,  but  to  accomplish  it  for  a 
prisoner  from  whom  all  desire  for  freedom  has  been 
crushed,  and  who  may  even  oppose  your  efforts,  is 
an  achievement  which  calls  for  more  than  ordinary 
courage,  faith,  and  persistence. 

Signs  of  a Yet  in  no  country  are  there  more  un- 

new  day.  mistakable  and  hopeful  evidences  of 

a new  era  for  women  than  in  India.  The  great  mass 
of  men  have  no  thought  that  things  should  be  differ- 
ent with  women,  and  if  such  a thought  is  presented  to 
them,  oppose  it.  The  great  mass  of  women  are  too 
ignorant,  too  secluded,  too  crushed  in  spirit  by  long- 
accustomed  chains,  even  to  dream  of  freer,  fuller  life, 
much  less  make  any  effort  to  secure  it.  But  against 
that  dark  background,  as  brilliant,  vivid,  glowing,  as 
the  flaming  flowers  and  foliage  of  that  color-filled 
land,  stand  out  those  shining  and  significant  “signs 
of  the  times”  which  make  it  impossible  to  doubt 
that  the  door  into  life  more  abundant  has  begun  to 
swing  open  for  India’s  women  and  has  already 
swung  too  far  ever  to  close  again. 

Many  of  India’s  most  influential  men,  Hindus  and 
Moslems,  as  well  as  Christians  and  Parsees,  are 
earnestly  championing  the  cause  of  the  women  of 
their  country.  Miss  Agnes  de  Selincourt,  long  a 
teacher  in  India,  says,  “A  realization  of  the  necessity 
for  an  educated  and  emancipated  womanhood  is 
now  no  longer  confined  to  those  sections  of  the 
community  which  are  directly  influenced  by  Chris- 
tianity, but  is  laying  hold  of  eastern  nations  as  a 


94  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

whole.”  And  Basanta  Koomar  Roy,  one  of  India’s 
keen  thinkers,  recently  declared  in  the  Century 
Magazine:  “By  far  the  most  significant  and  far- 
reaching  feature  of  the  social  reconstruction  of 
India  is  the  fact  that  both  the  Hindus  and  Moham- 
medans are  realizing  that  the  progress  of  India  is 
directly  dependent  on  the  proportionate  progress 
the  women  of  India  make  in  education  and  liberalism. 
Womanhood  is  the  greatest  asset  of  any  nation.  A 
weak  womanhood  means  a feeble  nation;  an  eman- 
cipated womanhood  means  a nation  based  on  a sound 
foundation.  The  men  of  India  realize  that  it  is  on 
account  of  their  selfishly  domineering  influence  that 
women  have  grown  feeble  in  intellect  and  sickly  in 
physique.” 

Significant  “Hardly  a congress  or  debating 

resolutions.  society  exists  which  does  not  pass 
resolutions  thereon,”  says  Miss  Minna  Cowan,  in 
speaking  of  the  growing  realization  of  the  need  of 
greater  freedom  for  the  women  of  India.  The  fol- 
lowing resolutions,  passed  by  the  Indian  National 
Conference  in  1914,  are  typical. 

Resolved: 

1.  “That  the  Conference  record  its  satisfaction 
at  the  progress  which  the  education  of  girls  in  this 
country  is  making  and  strongly  urges  upon  the  at- 
tention of  government  the  great  and  urgent  need  of 
further  expansion  of  the  elementary  and  higher 
education  among  the  women  in  this  country  by  more 
liberally  providing  suitable  facilities  such  as  girls’ 
schools,  high  schools,  and  also  arts  and  medical 
colleges. 


BROADENING  HORIZONS  95 

1.  “That  the  Conference  exhorts  the  public  to 
make  the  necessary  efforts  in  a strenuous  manner 
for  the  spread  of  useful  knowledge  which  forms  the 
basis  of  progress  among  Indian  women,  by  the  start- 
ing of  home  classes,  series  of  lectures,  and  clubs, 
associations,  or  institutions  conducted  by  and  for 
women,  so  as  to  secure  the  gradual  elevation  of 
Indian  womanhood,  and  thus  enable  the  women  of 
this  country  to  fairly  participate  in  all  social  and 
national  responsibility,  without  which  no  social  ad- 
vancement could  be  called  complete. 

3.  “That  this  Conference  expresses  its  apprecia- 
tion of  the  endeavors  that  are  being  made  in 
this  direction  by  institutions  like  the  Seva  Sadan 
Society.  . . . 

4.  “That  this  Conference  urges  upon  the  attention 
of  the  parents  and  guardians  of  girls  the  prime 
necessity  of  raising  the  marriageable  age  of  girls 
with  a view  to  enable  them  to  acquire  a decent 
amount  of  education  at  schools. 

5.  “That  this  Conference  urges  on  the  public  the 
necessity  of  relaxing  the  existing  rigor  of  the  purdah 
system  prevalent  among  many  provinces  of  India 
with  a view  to  its  final  abolition,  in  the  interests  of 
the  health  and  education  of  women  and  their  partici- 
pation in  all  social  activities.” 

Numerous,  too,  during  the  past  few  years  have 
been  such  resolutions  as  this:  “This  Conference  notes 
with  satisfaction  the  progress  hitherto  made  in  the 
cause  of  widow  remarriage,  and  emphasizes  the 
urgency  of  pushing  forward  the  work  of  removing 
restrictions  on  the  marriage  of  widows,  and  of 
establishing  Widow  Remarriage  Associations,  and 


g6  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

homes  tor  the  shelter  of  widows  desirous  to  marry.” 
Still  other  resolucions  strongly  support  the  efforts 
that  are  being  made  to  create  a public  opinion 
which  will  make  it  possible  for  widows  to  enter  work 
which  will  enable  them  to  support  themselves,  and 
to  provide  them  with  the  necessary  training  for  such 
work.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  there  are  in  India 
today  335,000  widows  less  than  fifteen  years  old, 
and  numberless  others  only  a few  years  older,  the 
question  of  their  remarriage  and  self-support  is  an 
extremely  important  aspect  of  the  woman  question 
in  India. 

Attitude  of  As  in  the  Near  East,  so  also  in  India, 
newspapers.  the  subject  of  a new  life  for  women 
is  kept  before  the  public  by  many  newspapers.  The 
Indian  Social  Reformer  is  outspoken  in  its  champion- 
ship of  everything  that  will  tend  to  enrich  the 
life  of  women  and  hasten  the  day  of  their  freedom. 
But  such  efforts  to  further  the  cause  of  women  a*-e 
not  limited  to  the  journals  definitely  dedicated  to 
the  cause  of  social  reform.  Witness,  for  example,  the 
following  quotation  from  The  Comrade , a Moham- 
medan paper  published  in  Delhi.  “If  the  women  of 
the  community  are  ignorant,  and  thus  cramped  and 
dwarfed  in  their  mentality,  the  new  generations  grow 
up  in  the  same  deadening  atmosphere,  and  the  loss 
of  personality  in  the  individual  is  the  inevitable 
result.  It  is  a terrible  price  to  pay,  and  no  community 
can  bear  the  burden  without  self-stultification.  . . . 
Efforts  should  be  made  by  earnest  men,  by  means 
of  an  independent  organization,  if  need  be,  to  draw 
up  a complete  program  and  start  a vigorous  cam- 
paign for  bringing  light  and  emancipation  to  Moslem 


BROADENING  HORIZONS 


97 

women.  The  task  is  the  noblest  and  yet  the  hardest 
that  the  Mussulmen  have  got  to  face.  Will  not  some 
valiant  spirit  sound  the  call  and  rally  other  brave 
hearts  for  the  fight?  The  hope  is  not  extravagant. 
The  Moslem  courage  and  chivalry  are  not  yet  wholly 
defunct.” 

Honors  to  wom-  There  is  something  very  touching,  as 
en  students.  well  as  encouraging,  in  the  pride  felt 
in  the  Indian  women  who  have  won  educational 
honors.  The  Bihar  Advocate  of  Gayo  proudly  calls 
the  attention  of  its  readers  to  the  fact  that  one 
Srimati  Kamala  Kammi  Debi  has  passed  the  last 
matriculation  examination  to  the  University,  and 
“is  perhaps  the  first  Beharee  girl  to  achieve  this 
distinction.”  The  Indian  Social  Reformer  frankly 
admits  that  “while  the  successes  of  Indian  students 
abroad  are  a source  of  gratification  and  pride,  that 
of  an  Indian  lady  is  doubly  so,”  and  takes  pains  to 
give  its  readers  definite  information  concerning  the 
honors  being  won  at  Newnham  College,  Cambridge, 
by  Miss  Chattopadhyay.  No  item  is  more  certain  of 
a place  on  the  front  page  than  one  like  this:  “All 
lovers  of  Sanskrit  and  well-wishers  of  female  educa- 
tion will  be  glad  to  learn  that  Kennari  Pandita  Satya- 
wathi  has  come  out  successful  at  the  last  Shastric 
examinations  at  the  Punjab  University.  There  were 
as  many  as  no  candidates  and  only  eighteen  have 
come  out  successful,  and  Kennari  Satyawathi  is  one 
of  the  eighteen.  She  is  the  first  Indian  girl  to  pass  this 
highest  and  most  difficult  examination  of  the  Uni- 
versity.” 

It  is  no  unheard  of  thing  nowadays  to  see  in  an 
Indian  newspaper  such  an  announcement  as  this: 


98  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

“A  gathering  in  congratulation  of  Hindu  ladies  who 
appeared  for  the  several  University  examinations 
last  year  will  be  held  on  October  first,  at  Sir  Nathub- 
hae’s  house.”  Accounts  like  this  are  not  infrequent: 
“A  public  meeting  was  held  in  the  school  hall,  the 
occasion  being  the  presentation  to  Srimati  Kana- 
kamma,  a Brahmin  lady,  a Mistress  in  the  local 
government  girls’  school,  of  six  gold  medals,  and 
rupees  216,  these  being  the  prizes  won  by  her  in  the 
Telugu  Annual  Vidwat  examinations.  . . . Long 
before  the  appointed  hour  the  hall  was  crowded  to 
the  utmost  with  ladies  and  gentlemen,  and  many 
gentlemen  had  to  stand  on  the  verandah  for  want 
of  accommodation  in  the  hall.  Mrs.  Rai  kindly 
consented  to  preside  over  the  meeting.  . . . The 
President  then  called  upon  Mr.  Rao  to  speak.  He 
was  exceedingly  glad  to  announce  that  the  Nellore 
lady  headed  the  list  of  both  male  and  female  can- 
didates, numbering  about  250,  that  appeared  from 
the  Telugu  country;  and  got  record  marks  in  all 
subjects,  literature,  science,  and  history,  and  that 
she  was,  therefore,  fortunate  in  carrying  away  all 
the  prizes  for  males  as  well  as  those  for  females.  This 
announcement  aroused  a huge  roar  of  applause  from 
the  audience  who  were  never  accustomed  to  hear 
such  things  in  Nellore,  and  who  were  very  much 
astonished  at  the  capabilities  of  the  young  lady.” 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  such  gatherings  as 
these  are  doing  much  to  reveal  to  the  people  of 
India  the  possibilities  bound  up  in  the  women,  and  to 
create  a divine  discontent  with  conditions  which 
force  those  possibilities  to  remain  dormant  in  so  large 
a number.  This  must  assuredly  be  true  when  the 


BROADENING  HORIZONS 


99 

woman  honored  puts  the  case  as  clearly  and  courte- 
ously as  did  Mrs.  Sarojini  Naidu,  India’s  best-known 
woman  poet,  at  a meeting  recently  held  in  her  honor, 
in  Guntur.  In  the  course  of  the  address  of  welcome 
to  her,  the  speaker  said,  “Our  hearts  leap  for  joy, 
dear  sister,  at  the  contemplation  of  even  a single  one 
of  your  accomplishments  in  this  benighted  land  of 
India,  where  women  are  especially  backward;  and 
we  look  to  you  as  an  ideal  of  perfection,  and  an  ex- 
ample for  Indian  womanhood  to  follow  and  to 
emulate.”  But  Mrs.  Naidu  had  no  mind  to  accept  a 
compliment  to  herself  at  the  expense  of  her  country- 
women, and  replied: 

“I  have  learned  to  feel  that  the  generous  and 
spontaneous  welcome  which  awaits  me  wherever  I 
go  is  not  at  all  a personal  tribute,  but  stands  as  a 
symbol  of  what  the  womanhood  of  India  represents 
when  the  men  of  India  give  them  the  same  chances 
as  I have  had.  . . . It  is  your  duty,  which  you  have 
not  recognized,  to  fulfil  the  task  of  giving  the  women 
these  many  opportunities  which  you  yourselves 
had,  which  are  necessary  to  fully  realize  all  the 
hidden  virtues  that  lie  within  their  souls.  ...  I am 
only  a little  lamp  of  clay.  But  there  are  thousands 
of  lamps  of  gold  hidden  away  for  want  of  oppor- 
tunity. Instead  of  thanking  you,  I should  reproach 
you  for  being  contented  with  lamps  of  clay  when 
there  are  lamps  of  gold.  Let  me  beseech  you  not  to 
be  content  with  such  small  ideals  as  are  represented 
by  any  successes  that  I may  have  achieved.” 

Growth  in  the  The  gradual  increase  in  the  number 
education  of  of  girls  of  school-going  age  who  are 
girls'  attending  schools  is  encouraging; 


IOO  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

but  more  significant  than  the  actual  increase  in 
numbers  is  the  fact  that  the  ranks  are  being  swelled 
by  girls  from  Hindu  and  Mohammedan  families. 
Many  of  the  men  of  these  two  most  conservative 
branches  of  Indian  society  are  proving  the  reality  of 
their  conviction  that  India’s  future  strength  is 
dependent  upon  the  progress  of  her  women,  by 
sending  their  daughters  to  school,  and  by  promoting 
the  establishment  of  additional  girls’  schools.  The 
Moslem  World  reported  in  19 14,  “The  movement 
among  Moslems  in  India  for  the  education  of  their 
daughters  is  growing  stronger  everywhere.  They 
themselves  are  opening  schools  and  advocating 
higher  education,  while  the  mission  schools  and 
zenanas  also  report  a considerable  access  of  pupils.” 
Only  a few  months  ago  the  Indian  Messenger  an- 
nounced the  decision  of  the  Brahmos  of  Lahore  to 
establish  a school  for  Hindu  girls,  which  should  also 
offer  special  courses  of  study  for  widows  and  married 
women.  The  same  week  the  Indian  Social  Reform- 
er reported  the  opening  ceremonies  of  a “Girls’ 
Buddhist  College”  in  Ceylon. 

The  remarriage  Nothing  in  the  new  attitude  of  the 
of  widows.  2^^  cf  ]ncpia  toward  women  is  more 

hopeful  than  the  fact  that  some  are  determined  to 
promote,  and  others  are  willing  to  tolerate,  the 
education  of  Hindu  widows;  and  to  permit  their  re- 
marriage when  educated.  It  will  doubtless  be  many 
a long  day  before  the  bitter  opposition  to  the  efforts 
to  give  the  thousands  of  India’s  widows  another 
chance  for  life  and  service  will  cease.  But  we  have 
gone  a long  way,  when  it  is  possible  to  pick  up  at 
random  almost  any  current  number  of  the  Indian 


BROADENING  HORIZONS 


IOI 


Social  Reformer  and  find  there  in  large  type,  notices 
such  as  these: 

“ Wanted . By  a gentleman,  Karhada  Brahmin, 
age  thirty-six,  in  the  Central  Provinces,  Provincial 
Service,  who  has  recently  lost  his  wife,  a suitable 
bride  of  any  of  the  three  sects  (widow  not  objected 
to)  between  seventeen  and  twenty-four  years  of  age, 
of  good  family  and  education.  Please  communicate 
with  G.  L.  Subhedar,  Barrister  at  Law,  Nagpur. 

“ Wanted . By  a gentleman,  Maharashtra  Brah- 
min, age  thirty-nine,  a practising  advocate  of  the 
Central  Provinces’  Bar  for  the  past  twelve  years,  a 
bride  (widow  not  objected  to)  who  is  a graduate  and 
has  read  up  to  the  B.  A.  standard.  Please  com- 
municate with  M.  Bhayanishankar  Niyog,  High 
Court  Pleader. 

“ Matrimonial — The  relatives  of  a young  widowed 
girl,  about  thirteen,  caste  Brahmin,  mother  tongue 
Tamil,  are  anxious  to  get  her  remarried  to  an  edu- 
cated young  man  of  good  character  of  their  own  or 
any  other  sect  of  Brahmins.  The  girl  belongs  to  a 
respectable  and  well-to-ao  family.  Communications 
may  be  addressed  to  Pioneer  Co.,  and  the  editor  of 
this  paper.” 

The  new  desires  But  when  all  is  said,  the  greatest  hope 
of  women.  for  I ndia’s  future  lies  in  the  fact  that 

many  of  the  women  who  have  hitherto  been  to  pro- 
gressive men  like  “a  log  around  the  leg  of  an  ele- 
phant,” are  now  themselves  eager  for  newness  of 
life.  Gradually  even  the  most  timid  of  the  purda- 
nashins  are  venturing  out  to  “purdah  parties,”  such 
as  those  which  have  been  given  for  some  years  by  the 
ladies  of  the  government  houses  in  India.  To  be 


102  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

sure,  all  men  servants  must  be  banished  from  the 
grounds  on  that  day,  and  not  a few  ladies  bring 
screens  with  them,  and  servants  to  hold  the  screens 
protectingly  about  them  as  they  walk  from  the 
carriage  to  the  house  entrance.  And  once  within  the 
house  they  plant  themselves  firmly  in  some  secluded 
nook,  whence  it  is  difficult  to  persuade  them  to  move, 
even  to  walk  in  the  gardens,  or  to  take  tea  in  the  ad- 
joining dining  room.  The  fear  of  seeing  or  being 
seen  by  a man  is  an  ever  present  one;  and  even  the 
presence  of  the  band  causes  them  uneasiness,  though 
the  bandstand  is  so  heavily  and  completely  veiled 
with  thick  curtains,  that,  though  there  may  be 
danger  of  suffocation  on  the  part  of  the  bandsmen, 
there  is  no  danger  of  their  being  seen  by  even  the 
most  careless  purdanashin  lady.  They  come  with 
trembling  at  their  daring,  many  of  these  timid 
Mohammedan  ladies,  but  they  come,  and  that  is 
much.  One  of  the  rules  of  etiquette  is  that  Moham- 
medan ladies  must  always  wear  gold  in  the  material 
of  their  dresses;  and  Lady  Sydenham,  who  has 
played  the  hostess  at  many  such  a gathering,  says 
that  no  one  who  has  not  been  present  “can  imagine 
the  shimmering  vision  of  hundreds  of  these  gaily 
dressed  little  women,  covered  with  priceless  jewels 
in  hair,  on  neck,  wrists,  and  ankles,  the  whole  atmos- 
phere filled  with  scents  as  strong  as  incense.  Their 
hair  is  mostly  wavy  and  shines  with  a brilliant  black 
polish,  they  wear  a diamond  stud  in  one  nostril,  and 
long  trailing  ear  rings.”  It  is  a dazzling  spectacle,  a 
purdah  party;  dazzling  to  the  outward  eye,  and  to 
the  inner  imagination,  for  it  forecasts  a new  and 
brighter  day  for  “the  secluded  ones.”  For  contact 


BROADENING  HORIZONS 


IO3 

with  other  and  more  privileged  women  has  an 
inevitable  result.  Gradually  the  more  thoughtful 
and  courageous  women  begin  to  wonder  whether  it 
might  be  possible  for  them,  or  at  least  for  their 
daughters,  to  have  a chance  to  learn  the  things  these 
foreign  women  know,  and  which  seem  to  make  their 
lives  so  rich  and  full  of  interest.  And  presently  they 
begin  to  venture  out  to  “Home  Classes”  and  to 
study  many  different  things.  Urged  by  a great  de- 
sire for  their  daughters,  they  begin,  too,  to  make 
definite  attempts  to  further  the  cause  of  woman’s 
education. 

The  courage  And  because  they  care  very  much 
of  women.  that  women  Gf  India’s  tomorrow 

may  find  a clearer  path  to  life  than  the  women  of 
today,  gentle  women  of  India  have  greatly  dared,  and 
have  lifted  up  their  voices  in  public,  even  when 
men  have  been  present.  What  courage  that  takes  in 
a woman  of  India,  only  those  whose  heritage  is 
centuries  of  repression  and  contempt  can  under- 
stand. But  it  is  done  in  India  today,  not  once  in 
many  months,  but  whenever  the  cause  of  women 
needs  a champion.  Witness  such  items  as  these  in  the 
reports  of  great  conferences,  attended  by  both  men 
and  women.  They  are  by  no  means  infrequent 
nowadays. 

“The  following  is  the  full  text  of  a speech  delivered 
by  Miss  Joshi  at  the  time  of  moving  the  resolution  on 
Female  Education  at  the  last  Provincial  Social  Con- 
ference.” 

“Mrs.  Subba  Takshimi  Ammal  in  seconding  the 
resolution  said,  ‘Miss  Srimati  Alamelumemgammal 
in  supporting  the  resolution  in  Tamil  traced  the 


IO4  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

development  of  female  education  from  the  time  of 
Miss  Mary  Carpenter.’” 

That  the  women  speakers  of  India  are  not  only 
courageous,  but  able,  is  the  testimony  of  many  an 
interested  auditor.  Said  Dr.  Lee,  after  attending 
the  National  Social  Conference  of  1917,  “No  fewer 
than  six  Indian  ladies  took  part  in  the  proposing 
and  supporting  of  resolutions  relating  to  women  and 
girls.  . . . All  were  earnest  and  fluent,  some  humor- 
ous and  eloquent.  Their  simple,  but  cultured,  lan- 
guage was  a treat  to  hear.  The  large  audience  (it 
was  at  its  largest  when  they  came  on)  listened  with 
well-marked  appreciation  to  what  they  had  to  say. 
One  matronly  lady  who  spoke  at  great  length 
received  more  prolonged  applause  than  any  other 
speaker  in  the  conference.” 

She  cares  enough,  the  woman  of  India,  for  what 
life  shall  be  for  other  women,  even  to  speak  on  sub- 
jects that  are  not  popular,  to  audiences  which  may 
be  more  critical  than  sympathetic.  Witness  this 
account  in  a Bombay  weekly,  of  August,  1915. 

“Miss  Krishnabai  Thakur,  M.  A.,  was  the  princi- 
pal speaker  of  the  meeting  held  on  July  25th  last,  to 
celebrate  as  usual  the  passing  of  the  Widow  Marriage 
Act.  The  meeting  was  held  in  the  Hari  Mandir  of 
the  local  Prarthana  Somaj  and  it  was  very  largely 
attended,  hundreds  of  people  being  disappointed  at 
finding  no  standing  room  in  the  Hall.  . . . Miss 
Krishnabai  had  a difficult  task  to  perform  when  she 
undertook  to  speak  on  a subject  like  widow  mar- 
riage. . . . We  must  congratulate  her  on  the  effective 
speech  she  made  and  upon  the  successful  manner  in 
which  she  performed  her  difficult  task.  . . . Her 


BOAT-WOMAN”  IN  CHINA 


BROADENING  HORIZONS  IO5 

appeal  to  the  reason  and  the  good  sense  of  the  com- 
munity will,  we  hope,  produce  a desirable  result.” 

Women  in  America  may,  if  they  choose,  indulge 
in  such  sentiments  as  these,  “I  will  work  on  any  com- 
mittee but  the  finance.”  “Yes,  I shall  be  glad  to 
help  in  any  way  I can,  except  that  you  must  not 
expect  me  to  raise  money.”  But  such  words  as  these 
are  not  for  the  little  woman  of  India.  She  will  go  the 
full  length  for  the  cause  she  cares  for,  or  she  will  not 
go  at  all.  For  forty  ladies  of  India  to  volunteer  to 
raise  money  for  “The  Female  Education  Fund”  by 
house  visitation  during  the  Diwali  holidays,  and  to 
bring  in  almost  eighteen  hundred  rupees,  was  a far 
greater  triumph  than  might  appear  on  the  surface, 
and  was  so  recognized  by  some  of  their  countrymen, 
who  at  a public  meeting  bore  testimony  to  “the  self- 
sacrificing  spirit  of  the  volunteers.” 

India  and  the  Upon  an  India  like  this  broke,  in  the 
world  war.  summer  of  1914,  the  word  of  the  great 

war.  And  the  effect  of  the  war  upon  India  has  been 
very  striking.  It  might  have  been  expected  that  the 
first  stirrings  of  the  new  life  of  women  would  have 
been  crushed  out  by  a war  into  which  India  began  at 
once  to  pour  her  richest  treasures  of  men  and  money. 
Surely,  in  the  call  to  arms  men  would  no  longer  con- 
cern themselves  about  the  little  things  of  women. 
In  the  greatness  of  their  grief  and  sacrifice  assuredly 
there  would  die  in  the  hearts  of  women  the  little  new- 
born hopes.  How  could  the  blackness  of  world 
calamity  fail  to  drive  back  into  an  even  greater 
seclusion  the  women  who  had  taken  only  the  first 
timid  steps  toward  freer  life? 

But  not  so.  With  the  war  there  have  come  to  many 


IO 6 WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

of  India’s  men  and  women,  ideals  and  longings  which 
were  before  the  possessions  of  only  a few.  The  desire 
to  be  useful,  the  eagerness  to  learn  the  things  which 
will  enable  her  to  serve,  the  willingness  to  sacrifice 
for  the  cause  of  life  more  abundant;  these  things, 
which,  before  1914,  lay  dormant  in  many  an  Indian 
woman,  have  become  a flaming  passion  since  the  war 
began. 

The  men  of  India  have  gone  by  hundreds  and 
thousands  to  fight  the  battles  of  England  in  Europe, 
and  while  they  have  been  bearing  their  heroic  part, 
they  have  seen  more  than  battle,  murder,  and  sudden 
death.  The  letter  from  a wounded  soldier  of  India 
to  his  brother  at  home,  published  in  the  Saturday 
Evening  Post  some  months  past,  was  penned  by 
Rudyard  Kipling.  But  those  who  know  India,  and 
have  seen  it  since  the  letters  began  to  come  back  from 
Flanders  and  France,  say  that  it  is  perfected  truth, 
in  the  picture  it  gives  of  what  is  happening  in  the 
minds  of  hundreds  of  soldiers  of  India  today,  and  in 
its  suggestion  of  what  is  going  to  come  because  of  the 
new  ideals  and  purposes  to  which  those  letters  bear 
witness. 

“Write,  Sahib,”  says  the  wounded  soldier  to  the 
doctor  who  has  offered  to  write  a letter  for  him,  “My 
belly  is  on  fire  now  with  knowledge  I never  had 
before,  and  I wish  to  impart  it  to  my  brother — to  the 
village  elders — to  all  people.  Take  down  all  the 
words  from  my  lips  to  my  foolish  old  farmer  brother.” 
And  amid  much  talk  of  the  war,  of  French  methods 
of  farming,  of  the  kind  old  lady  in  whose  home  he  has 
been  billeted,  “well-born  and  educated”;  this  young 
Indian  dictates  to  his  scribe:  “The  children  wear  no 


BROADENING  HORIZONS 


I07 

jewelry,  but  they  are  more  beautiful  than  I can  say. 
It  is  a country  where  the  women  are  not  veiled.  Their 
marriage  is  at  their  own  choice  and  takes  place 
between  their  twentieth  and  twenty-fifth  year.  They 
seldom  quarrel  or  shout  out.  They  do  not  pilfer  from 
each  other.  They  do  not  tell  lies  at  all.  When  calam- 
ity overtakes  them  there  is  no  ceremonial  of  grief, 
such  as  tearing  the  hair  or  the  like.  They  swallow  it 
down  and  endure  silently.  Doubtless  this  is  the  fruit 
of  learning  in  youth.  (And  now,  Sahib,  we  will 
begin  to  enlighten  him  and  the  elders.) 

“We  must  cause  our  children  to  be  educated  in  the 
future.  That  is  the  opinion  of  all  the  regiment,  for 
by  education  even  women  accomplish  marvels  like 
the  women  of  Franceville.  Get  the  boys  and  girls 
taught  to  read  and  write  well.  Here  teaching  is  by 
government  order.  The  men  go  to  the  war  daily.  It 
is  the  women  who  do  all  the  work  at  home,  having 
been  well  taught  in  their  childhood.  We  have  yoked 
only  one  buffalo  to  the  plow  up  till  now.  It  is  now 
time  to  yoke  up  the  milch  buffaloes.  Tell  the  village 
elders  this  and  exercise  influence.  (Write  that  down 
very  strongly,  Sahib.  We  who  have  seen  Franceville 
all  know  it  is  true.)” 

The  mobilization  And  while  the  armies  of  India  fight 
of  women.  at  the  fr0nt,  the  women  of  India  are 

mobilizing  by  the  hundreds  in  what  is  sometimes  a 
blind  and  groping,  but  always  a determined  and 
purposeful,  effort  to  lay  hold  on  the  gift  of  life,  and  to 
learn  how  to  use  it  aright.  A few  months  past  a 
secretary  of  the  Young  Women’s  Christian  Associa- 
tion of  India  visited  a city  in  south  India,  where  for 
many  years  missionaries  had  found  it  impossible  to 


108  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

gain  any  access  to  the  high-caste  Hindu  women.  But 
on  this  visit  she  found  no  more  aloof  little  ladies,  who 
knew  no  life  beyond  the  doors  of  their  homes,  and 
who  never  opened  those  doors  to  bid  a Christian 
worker  welcome.  Instead  four  newly  organized 
somajes  (societies)  established  since  the  war  by 
these  high-caste  ladies,  sent  her  urgent  invitations  to 
address  them;  and  exhibited,  with  pathetic  eagerness, 
the  ambitious  educational  and  social  programs  which 
they  had  drawn  up.  A very  few  there  were,  among 
the  throngs  who  poured  out  to  hear  her  tell  of  the  life 
of  the  women  of  other  lands,  who  had  had  a chance 
to  go  to  schools  like  the  women  of  those  faraway 
countries,  and  the  pride  of  the  others  in  these  learned 
ones  was  very  great  and  very  touching.  The  foreign 
lady  must  meet  each  one  of  them,  and  lest  she  should 
not  fully  realize  the  achievements  of  one  who  had 
secured  a college  degree,  she  was  introduced  as 
“Miss  So-and-sc,  B.  A.”  But  had  she  not  been  told 
that  the  number  of  those  who  understood  English  in 
her  audience  could  almost  be  numbered  on  the  fingers 
of  the  hands,  the  foreign  lady  would  never  have 
guessed  it.  Although  over  a hundred  were  packed, 
literally  on  top  of  one  another,  in  a room  which  would 
have  been  crowded  by  a quarter  of  that  number,  they 
listened  with  such  breathless  attention,  their  eyes 
fixed  on  her  face  with  such  intensity  of  interest,  that 
she  could  scarcely  believe  that  the  services  of  her 
interpreter  were  needed.  And  after  it  was  over  they 
crowded  about  her.  “Stay  with  us,”  they  pleaded. 
“We  want  to  know  the  things  you  know.  We  want  to 
learn  the  things  of  which  you  have  spoken.  We  want 
to  be  able  to  do  the  things  the  women  of  whom  you 


BROADENING  HORIZONS  IO9 

have  told  us  can  do.”  It  was  not  easy  to  tell  them 
that  she  had  to  take  the  night  train;  and  the  ex- 
planation that  important  work  in  other  places  de- 
manded her  meant  little  to  those  hungry  high-caste 
ladies.  ‘‘But  what  could  be  more  important,”  they 
urged  wistfully,  ‘‘than  to  stay  here  and  teach  us  the 
things  we  need  so  much  to  know?” 

Day  after  day  they  are  coming  together,  the  women 
of  that  southern  city,  to  learn  whatever  they  can  from 
whomever  they  can  find  to  teach  them.  Wrinkled 
old  grandmothers,  and  wee  bright-eyed  girl  children 
come  hand  in  hand  to  the  somaj  rooms,  almost  every 
day,  to  sit  side  by  side  in  eager  effort  “to  learn.” 
But  progress  is  discouragingly  slow  when  there  are 
none  to  guide  the  gropings  of  those  untrained  minds. 
Yet,  in  the  meantime,  they  are  reaching  out,  those 
women,  in  efforts  to  help.  One  of  those  new  somajes  is 
already  carrying  on  a home  for  little  orphaned  and 
friendless  children. 

That  secretary  of  the  Young  Women’s  Christian 
Association  found  conditions  like  these  practically 
everywhere  she  went  during  months  of  constant  and 
extended  travel  in  1916.  Everywhere  the  women 
were  reaching  out  in  desperate  eagerness  for  two 
things;  education,  and  the  chance  to  serve.  And 
when  at  the  end  of  her  traveling  she  came  back  to  her 
headquarters  in  Bombay,  she  found  on  her  desk  a 
letter  from  London.  The  Woman’s  Suffrage  Society 
of  Great  Britain  had  received  a request,  the  letter 
said,  from  some  Hindu  women  in  the  Punjab.  Their 
letter  had  said  that  they  had  formed  themselves  into  a 
somaj,  and  now  they  must  have  someone  to  teach 
them,  and  to  lead  them  to  a life  of  freedom,  and  of 


no 


WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 


service  to  their  countrywomen.  Would  the  Suffrage 
Society  send  some  one  very  soon?  And  so,  said  the 
letter  from  London,  this  request  is  turned  over  to 
you.  This  is  a need  for  Christian  women’s  organiza- 
tions to  meet. 

New  life  in  “The  establishment  of  a wholly  new 

old  China.  social  order  for  women  is  apparent 

to  the  experienced  observer,”  a missionary  whose 
work  had  taken  her  from  one  end  of  China  to  the 
other  wrote  in  1913.  “That  the  order  is  not  defined, 
that  it  will  be  subject  to  much  modification,  that  the 
form  evidenced  today  will  be  rejected  tomorrow, 
awakens  no  wonder.  There  is,  however,  no  voice  in 
China  to  forbid  the  new  life  to  the  women  of  old 
China.” 

Men’s  new  atti-  Certainly  the  young  men  of  China 
tude  toward  give  little  evidence  of  any  disposition 
women.  to  rajse  their  voices  in  protest.  When, 

a few  years  past,  a young  gentleman  of  Peking  re- 
ceived a letter  of  proposal  from  a young  woman  in 
one  of  the  schools  of  that  city,  he  answered  happily 
to  the  question  of  whether  he  had  accepted,  “Why, 
of  course!  It  is  so  nice  to  do  things  as  they  do  in 
America!” 

I well  remember  a wedding  of  old  China  which  I 
attended  in  Shanghai  several  years  ago.  The  fright- 
ened-looking little  bride  had  never  seen  her  husband 
until  the  moment  when,  after  the  wedding  ceremony 
was  over,  he  raised  her  heavy  red  veil  and  looked  at 
her.  Very  different  are  some  of  the  weddings  of  the 
China  of  today.  A missionary  tells  of  attending  one 
where  both  the  bridegroom  and  the  bride,  who  had, 
by  the  way,  become  thoroughly  acquainted  with  each 


BROADENING  HORIZONS 


III 


other  during  several  months  preceding  their  marriage, 
made  speeches  to  the  audience,  in  which  they  ex- 
horted them  to  discard  old  and  undesirable  customs, 
and  follow  the  enlightened  example  of  western  lands. 
A friend  in  Peking  writes  of  a Chinese  girl  who  had 
just  become  a Christian,  and  who  asked  her  if  she 
would  go  over  the  Christian  marriage  service  with 
her  a few  days  before  the  wedding.  When  the  ap- 
pointed time  came,  both  the  prospective  bride  and 
her  future  husband  appeared,  and  the  two  went  over 
the  service  together,  showing  keen  disappointment 
at  the  fact  that  it  contained  no  reference  to  her  gift 
of  a ring  to  him.  When  the  day  for  the  wedding 
arrived  they  waited  together  at  her  home  until  the 
time  came  to  go  to  the  church. 

Some  years  ago  a Chinese  woman  interrupted  a 
missionary’s  attempt  to  picture  the  joys  of  heaven, 
by  exclaiming,  “It  would  be  heaven  enough  for  me 
to  have  my  husband  walk  beside  me  on  the  street  as 
yours  does  with  you!”  Many  a Chinese  woman 
knows  that  kind  of  heaven  on  earth  today.  No  one 
nowadays  turns  to  stare  at  the  sight  of  Chinese 
husbands  and  wives  making  calls  together  or  attend- 
ing church  or  lectures  or  concerts;  not  even  though 
the  husband  may  be  carrying  the  baby,  and  stepping 
aside  to  let  his  wife  precede  him  through  the  door. 

“There  is  great  encouragement,”  says  a writer  in 
the  Chinese  Recorder , “in  the  numberless  instances 
in  which  husbands  now  provide  instruction  for  their 
ignorant  wives,  neglected  in  childhood,  and  take  no 
small  pride  in  their  ability  to  read,  to  keep  accounts, 
and  order  their  household  aright.”  But  there  are 
husbands  who  are  by  no  means  content  with  such 


1 12  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

modest  proficiency  for  their  wives.  Men  who  come 
to  America  to  study  not  infrequently  bring  their 
wives  with  them,  and  the  two  study  together,  either 
in  the  same  school  or  in  separate  ones.  Older  men  are 
determined  that  their  daughters  shall  have  every 
chance  for  a good  education.  In  no  Oriental,  land  is 
there  greater  or  more  earnest  interest  in  woman’s 
education  than  in  China.  The  Christian  schools  are 
overcrowded  with  girls  from  every  grade  of  Chinese 
society;  and  many  Chinese  men  have  given  much 
money  and  effort  to  establish  additional  schools. 

There  is  genuine  sympathy,  too,  on  the  part  of 
many  Chinese  men,  with  the  enlarging  ideals  of 
woman’s  life  and  work.  Chinese  husbands  and  fathers 
boast  shamelessly  of  the  prowess  of  the  women  of 
their  family  in  public  speaking,  in  the  work  of 
women’s  societies,  etc.  One  of  the  books  recendy 
published  by  the  Shanghai  Commercial  Press  is  a 
thoughtful  study  by  a Chinese  gentleman  of  the 
suffragist  movement  around  the  world,  and  it  leaves 
no  doubt  as  to  the  writer’s  sympathies.  “One  of  our 
greatest  causes  for  encouragement,”  says  a mis- 
sionary in  inland  China,  “is  that  very  many  of  the 
more  enlightened  men  of  China  are  most  deeply 
anxious  that  their  womenkind  should  take  their  true 
place  as  equals,  and  helpers  in  the  work  of  the  world, 
and  these  men  will  help  with  all  their  influence 
toward  this  end.” 

Women’s  new  And  the  women  themselves?  It  goes 
longings.  without  saying  that  the  young  girls 

are  stretching  out  eager  hands  toward  all  the  fasci- 
nating new  interests  which  life  is  offering  them.  But 
the  desire  for  fuller  life  is  not  theirs  alone.  “The 


BROADENING  HORIZONS 


”3 

craving  for  education  amongst  the  grown-up  women 
is  another  sign  of  the  times,”  writes  a missionary,  and 
her  letter  comes  not  from  a port  city,  full  of  western 
influence,  but  from  the  less-advanced  interior.  “Go 
into  any  government  school  of  the  great  cities,  and 
there  you  will  see  numbers  of  grown  women  from 
twenty  to  forty  years  of  age,  seated  on  benches  with 
the  little  children,  patiently  bending  over  their  books 
and  slates  in  earnest  study.  ...  It  is  a pathetic 
sight  and  full  of  meaning  for  the  future.” 

_ T . These  changes  in  ideals  for  the  life  of 

women,  which  have  come  throughout 
practically  the  entire  Orient,  have  in  China  come  with 
such  bewildering  suddenness  that  the  dangers  of 
the  situation  are  perhaps  both  more  serious  and  more 
evident  than  in  any  other  land.  “The  doors  of 
ignorance  and  custom,  which  we  have  so  long  prayed 
God  to  open,  are  open  now,  all  open,”  says  Dr.  Mary 
Carleton  of  Foochow,  and  adds,  “I  would  go  even 
farther  and  say  that  there  are  no  walls  at  all.  They 
have  been  torn  down  altogether,  and  pouring  out 
from  these  darkened  homes  are  myriads  of  young 
women  and  girls  demanding  amusement,  entertain- 
ment, and  knowledge.  It  is  not  a good  thing  to  have 
homes  totally  without  doors.” 

From  Sianfu,  many  days’  journey  from  Foochow, 
Miss  Shekelton  tells  a similar  story.  “They  ask  for 
liberty  and  education,”  she  says  of  the  women  of 
her  section  of  the  country,  “for  power,  for  political 
rights,  while  as  yet,  alas,  the  far  greater  majority 
even  of  the  middle  and  upper  classes  are  without  the 
training  which  can  enable  them  to  wield  power.  . . . 
A handsome,  wealthy  young  lady  of  Sianfu  imagines 


114  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

that  she  is  proving  her  emancipation  by  standing  for 
hours  outside  her  husband’s  gate,  on  a main  thorough- 
fare, smoking  cigarettes.  Gaily  dressed  in  a pale  blue 
silk  robe,  with  manners  far  too  free,  utterly  scandaliz- 
ing all  respectable  Chinese  who  passed  by,  the  poor 
lady  honestly  believed  that  she  was  acting  the  correct 
part  of  the  ‘new  woman/  and  was  following  the 
customs  of  the  West.” 

New  oppor-  No  one  who  is  at  all  in  touch  with  the 
tumties.  Chinese  women  of  this  transition 

period  can  fail  to  be  keenly  alive  to  its  many  dangers 
— or  to  its  superb  opportunities.  For  the  very  in- 
itiative and  fearlessness  which  in  unguided  Chinese 
women  have  found  expression  in  grotesque  and 
perilous  forms,  have  in  other  Chinese  girls,  wisely 
guided,  made  possible  such  splendid  leadership  and 
service  as  that  of  Dr.  Mary  Stone,  Miss  Ying  Mei 
Chun,  Miss  Yu  Ling  Chen  and  a host  of  others.  And 
it  is  in  the  development,  through  Christian  schools, 
of  more  such  women  as  these,  that  Miss  Shekelton 
sees  the  chief  means  of  preventing  “pitiful  waste  of 
splendid  material,”  and  developing  “the  great  possi- 
bilities lying  dormant”  in  so  many  of  the  bewildered 
girls  of  China  today.  These  girls  from  mission  schools, 
educated,  capable  of  leadership  “are  the  hope  of  the 
future;  and  they  are  object  lessons  to  all,  of  the  power 
of  Christ  in  the  uplift  of  women.  But — and  this  is 
partly  due  to  the  indifference  of  the  home  churches 
in  the  past — how  pitifully  few  are  these  trained, 
educated  women,  when  at  so  great  a crisis  many 
times  the  number  available  could  be  put  in  positions 
of  leadership.” 


BROADENING  HORIZONS 


In  Japan. 


”5 

The  situation  in  Japan  is  not  al- 
together unlike  that  in  China,  al- 
though the  influences  of  western  ideals  for  women 
began  to  penetrate  the  Sunrise  Kingdom  long  before 
the  Celestial  Empire  had  even  begun  to  rub  its 
sleepy  eyes.  For  this  reason,  and  because  the  Jap- 
anese woman  has  always  had  a greater  measure  of 
freedom  than  any  other  Oriental  woman,  changes 
have  come  less  suddenly.  The  last  few  years  have 
given  no  striking  evidences  of  change  in  the  attitude 
of  the  men  of  Japan  toward  women.  They  have 
rather  shown  a gradual  development  of  the  ideals 
which  Japan  began  to  express  years  ago,  when 
Mutsuhito,  in  the  early  years  of  his  reign,  made 
primary  education  compulsory  for  girls  as  well  as 
boys  and  declared,  “Females  hitherto  have  had  no 
position  socially,  because  it  was  considered  that  they 
were  without  understanding;  but  if  educated  and 
intelligent  they  should  have  due  respect.” 

Changes  in  It  is  among  the  women  themselves 
woman’s  life.  that  there  is  change.  Economic  con- 
ditions are  thrusting  girls  out  from  their  homes,  into 
positions  fraught  with  danger  to  the  ignorant,  but 
into  which  they  go  gladly  because  of  their  desire  for 
freedom.  Young  girls  in  country  homes  are  lured  by 
the  excitement  of  life  in  great  cities,  but  understand 
nothing  of  its  dangers.  The  faculties  of  girls’  schools 
are  puzzling  over  problems  unknown  to  the  teachers 
of  a few  years  ago.  One  teacher  says,  “When  leading 
educators  find  it  necessary  to  form  a body  of  in- 
structions cautioning  young  women  against  associat- 
ing with  young  men  unless  properly  guarded  and 
chaperoned,  we  know  that  the  actual  position  and 


1 1 6 WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

circumstances  of  girls  of  today  are  absolutely 
different  from  those  of  their  mothers  and  grand- 
mothers.” 

Miss  Michi  Kawai,  national  secretary  of  the  Young 
Women’s  Christian  Association  of  Japan,  says  that 
translations  of  western  novels,  especially  some  from 
France  and  Russia,  are  often  responsible  for  warped 
ideals.  The  modern  theater,  too,  Miss  Kawai  says, 
has  wrought  havoc  among  hosts  of  Japanese  women 
who  throng  to  see  Ibsen’s  “Doll  House,”  and  other 
plays  like  it,  but  lack  the  knowledge  of  the  conditions 
of  society  represented  by  these  plays,  which  would 
enable  them  to  see  below  the  surface.  A friend  who 
made  an  unexpected  trip  to  America  from  Japan 
only  a year  and  a half  after  her  return  from  furlough, 
found  it  hard  to  believe  that  so  short  a time  had 
passed.  “I  suppose  it  seems  so  long,”  she  said,  “be- 
cause during  that  year  and  a half  so  many  tragedies 
have  come  to  so  many  of  my  Japanese  friends  be- 
cause they  have  tried  to  follow  western  customs,  and 
have  misunderstood  them.” 

Such  things  as  these  are  greatly  to  be  regretted, 
but  they  are  an  almost  inevitable  accompaniment  of 
a period  of  transition,  and  should  not  decrease  our 
faith  in  the  fundamental  strength  and  fineness  of  the 
women  of  Japan.  Miss  Ume  Tsuda,  that  splendid 
leader  in  woman’s  education  in  Japan,  has  summed 
the  matter  up  sanely  and  fairly  when  she  says:  “It 
is  unreasonable  to  expect  Japanese  women  to  have 
gained  those  qualities  of  mind  derived  from  educa- 
tion and  religion  which  safeguard  modern  western 
women  in  their  free  life  and  intercourse  with  the 
world.  Impulses  are  now  being  set  free  which  were 


BROADENING  HORIZONS 


1 17 

held  in  check  in  the  past  by  external  forces,  while 
there  is  yet  lacking  judgment  and  knowledge  of  true 
values,  and  restraint  from  within,  to  guide  the 
awakened  mind.” 

The  one  safe  Nowhere,  except  in  Christianity,  Miss 
Guide.  Tsuda  goes  on  to  say,  can  the  awak- 

ened mind  of  the  woman  of  Japan  find  the  guidance 
which  it  needs  in  these  days  of  far-stretching, 
dazzlingly  bright,  new  horizons.  Modern  education 
alone  cannot  do  it,  says  Miss  Tsuda,  nor  the  old 
religions  of  Japan  which  “have  little  ethical  influence, 
and  only  a feeble  hold  at  best  on  modern  men  and 
women.”  “Christianity,”  she  says,  “especially  fills 
the  needs  of  women  at  this  time  of  awakening.  . . . 
Christianity  places  woman  on  a level  with  man,  her 
individuality  and  worth  in  herself  are  recognized  and 
full  scope  is  given  to  her  powers.  . . . Through  its 
ethical  and  philanthropic  side,  Christianity  makes 
the  strongest  appeal  to  our  women,  an  appeal  which 
meets  a wonderful  response  in  the  hearts  of  sensitive 
natures,  made  singularly  receptive  by  the  discipline 
of  the  past.” 

Not  for  the  awakening  women  of  Japan  alone  are 
Miss  Tsuda’s  words  true.  To  no  country  can  the  life 
of  the  Orient  of  olden  days  return.  Into  a new  life, 
freer,  fuller,  fraught  with  more  numerous  dangers 
and  infinitely  more  and  greater  opportunities,  the 
women  of  the  East  cannot  choose  but  go.  And  for 
them  all  there  is  but  one  safe  Guide. 


1 1 8 


WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 


Christian  Missions  and  Broadening  Horizons 

Many  causes  there  are  which  have  contributed  to  the  changing 
ideals  of  the  Orient  regarding  the  life  of  women,  but  perhaps  no 
other  single  influence  has  been  so  great  as  that  of  the  mission 
school  for  girls.  The  old  Orient  was  convinced  that  brains  had 
been  omitted  in  the  creation  of  women.  The  reply  of  the  Chinese 
to  the  missionary  who  was  urging  him  to  send  his  daughter  to 
school  is  well  known.  “Can  you  teach  that  horse  yonder  to  read? 
Well  then,  if  you  cannot  teach  an  intelligent  horse,  what  can  you 
expect  to  do  with  a woman!”  Moreover,  the  Oriental  lords  of 
creation  were  strongly  of  the  opinion  that  even  if  women  could 
learn,  it  would  probably  be  highly  undesirable  to  permit  them  to 
do  so.  Would  they  not  be  less  womanly  and  submissive? 

It  was  no  easy  task  to  start  schools  for  girls  in  the  face  of  such 
a feeling  as  that,  but  no  obstacles  were  great  enough  to  dis- 
courage the  women  who  had  left  all  to  bring  lifemore abundant 
to  their  sisters  of  the  East.  Not  one  or  two,  but  many  and  many 
a mission  school  was  started  with  little  waifs  and  orphans,  or  the 
children  of  the  poorest  of  the  poor,  who  were  persuaded  to  per- 
mit their  daughters  to  attend  school  because  the  teachers  prom- 
ised to  provide  not  only  education,  but  food  and  shelter  and  some- 
times clothing,  too.  The  story  of  woman’s  education  in  the  East 
is  one  of  small  beginnings,  great  difficulties,  and  many  vicissi- 
tudes. But  gradually  the  patient,  persistent  efforts  of  the  mis- 
sionaries accomplished  two  things.  They  proved  that  brains 
had  not  been  left  out  when  little  girls  were  made,  and  that, 
furthermore,  women  who  had  been  given  education  were  far 
more  useful  and  attractive  members  of  the  family  and  com- 
munity than  those  who  had  never  been  to  school  when  they  were 
little  girls.  And  gradually,  young  men  began  to  desire  educated 
wives,  who  would  be  companionable  as  well  as  useful;  fathers 
began  to  entertain  ambitions  for  their  daughters;  mothers  began 
to  hope  that  the  fullness  of  life  which  they  had  never  known 
might  be  granted  their  little  girls;  and  the  little  girls,  them- 
selves, began  to  beg  to  go  to  school.  Mission  schools  became 
crowded,  new  ones  sprang  up,  and  even  more  significant,  per- 
haps, the  people  of  the  East  determined  to  take  their  own  share 
in  the  education  of  their  daughters,  and  individuals  and  govern- 


BROADENING  HORIZONS 


119 

ments  established  and  maintained  schools  for  girls  as  well  as  for 
boys.  There  are  many  schools  for  girls  in  the  Orient  today,  but 
the  oldest  of  them  are  almost  all  mission  schools.  They  blazed 
the  trails  along  which  others  have  followed.  Prof.  Edward  A. 
Ross  speaks  truly  when  he  says,  “The  government  schools  for 
girls  ....  would  never  have  been  provided  if  the  mission- 
aries had  not  created  a demand  for  female  education  and  shown 
how  to  teach  girls.” 

Days  of  broadening  horizons,  of  change  of  thought  and  cus- 
tom, are  days  of  danger  as  well  as  days  of  hope  and  opportunity. 
What  shall  the  new  life  be  to  which  the  women  of  the  East  are 
hastening?  We  who  have  sent  the  women,  the  schools,  the  ideals, 
which  have  played  so  large  a part  in  flinging  wide  the  doors  to 
this  freer  life,  must  accept  the  responsibility  for  the  answer  to 
that  question.  We  have  had  much  to  do  with  the  passing  of  the 
old;  we  must  have  much  to  do  with  determining  the  new.  We 
who  have  taken  away  the  old  ideals,  the  old  customs,  the  old 
sanctions,  must  see  that  the  new,  so  far  from  being  less  good 
than  those  that  are  passing,  shall  be  in  accordance  with  the 
spirit  and  the  teachings  of  Him  who  came  to  bring  abundant 
life.  We  who  have  created  hunger  for  education  must  furnish 
schools,  and  schools  which  are  the  best  in  the  country,  both  from 
the  point  of  view  of  education  and  of  the  development  of  Chris- 
tian character.  W?e  who  have  brought  into  being  strange  and 
urgent  longings  and  purposes  must  furnish  leaders  in  these 
bewildering  days  of  transition,  women  made  wise  and  steady  and 
clear-visioned  by  Christian  education.  Better  were  it  that  we 
had  never  come,  if  we  fail  them  now.  Better  to  have  left  the 
women  of  the  East  bound  in  body,  mind,  and  spirit,  than  to  have 
set  them  free  to  stumble  gropingly  and  unguided  along  ways 
that  are  fraught  with  perils.  Our  work  is  not  ended.  Rather  our 
greatest  responsibilities,  our  greatest  opportunities  are  still  before 
us. 


120 


WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 


QUESTIONS  ON  CHAPTER  III. 

Aim  of  study:  To  show  the  changes  that  are  coming  in  the 
life  of  the  women  of  the  East  today,  to  understand  their  causes, 
to  realize  the  dangers  and  opportunities  of  such  a time  of  transi- 
tion, and  to  recognize  the  challenge  to  Christian  women. 

1.  What  two  ideals  regarding  the  life  of  women  are  in  con- 
flict in  the  Orient  today? 

2.  Which  of  the  two,  do  you  think,  has  the  greater  number 
of  adherents? 

3.  Which  do  you  think  is  likely  to  prevail?  Why? 

4.  What  influences  do  you  think  have  been  most  effective  in 
changing  the  attitude  and  ideals  of  many  men  of  the  Orient 
regarding  women? 

5.  What  part  has  missionary  work  played  in  creating  new 
ambitions  for  their  wives  and  daughters  among  the  men  of  the 
Orient? 

6.  What  are  some  of  the  evidences  of  new  ideals  and  purposes 
among  Oriental  women? 

7.  How  generally  are  these  new  ideals  and  purposes  held 
among  the  women  of  the  East? 

8.  How  significant  are  they? 

9.  What  do  you  think  will  be  the  results  of  them? 

10.  What  has  brought  them? 

11.  How  has  the  war  affected  women’s  thinking  and  living? 

12.  Has  it  brought  new  responsibilities  and  opportunities  to 
our  foreign  missionary  societies,  and  if  so,  what  are  they? 

13.  What  seem  to  you  the  greatest  dangers  of  such  a period  of 
transition? 

14.  Which  do  you  consider  the  greater,  its  dangers  or  its  op- 
portunities? 

15.  What  seem  to  you  its  most  urgent  demands  upon  us? 


Copyright  by  Underuood  and  U nderurood,  N.  Y. 


A MOHAMMEDAN  WOMAN— UNVEILED! 


' 

CHAPTER  IV. 


Suggested  Scripture  Reading. 

Diversities  of  workings , but  the  same  God  who  worketh  all  things 
in  all.  I Corinthians  12:  4-11. 

The  Trail  Makers. 

Oriental  women 

In  business; 

In  education; 

In  literature; 

In  medicine; 

In  law; 

In  social  a;:d  religious  work. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


THE  TRAIL  MAKERS 

Women  and  the  “Which  one  of  these  jobs  can  you 
world  war.  fill  ? The  time  may  soon  come  when 
you  will  have  to  choose.”  Under  this  pointed  ques- 
tion, a recent  magazine  printed  twenty-four  illus- 
trations of  the  unwonted  tasks  which  women  in 
warring  nations  are  performing  today,  such  as 
driving  taxicabs,  ambulances,  and  huge  mail  vans, 
running  trolley  cars,  acting  as  switch  tenders,  collect- 
ing railway  tickets,  even  directing  the  movements 
of  great  trains  from  signal  towers.  Tasks  such  as 
these,  and  many  others  to  which,  before  1914,  women 
had  never  put  their  hands,  are  now  demanding  the 
services  of  hundreds  of  girls  and  women,  and  will 
demand  them  in  increasing  numbers.  Two  compelling 
reasons  there  are  why  our  traditional  ideas  of 
“woman’s  sphere”  have  burst  all  bounds  within  the 
past  years,  and  can  never  again  be  forced  back  within 
the  old  limits.  The  work  of  the  world  must  go  on. 
Whether  they  wish  it  or  not,  women  must  take  up 
and  carry  on  the  tasks  which  men  are  leaving,  some- 
times for  years,  sometimes  permanently.  And  life 
must  go  on.  If  families  in  which  the  men  have  been 
killed,  or  permanently  disabled,  are  not  to  die  out, 
women  have  no  choice  but  to  take  up  work  which 
will  enable  them  to  support  themselves  and  others. 
We  have  been  gradually  becoming  accustomed  in 
these  days  of  industrial  development  and  broadening 


124  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

social  ideals  to  the  thought  that  for  some  women  work 
outside  the  home  which  made  self-support  possible 
was  necessary.  A world  war,  with  cataclysmic  sudden- 
ness, has  forced  us  to  a place  where  we  must  look 
upon  the  woman  who  cannot  support  herself  as  the 
exception,  and  where  we  must  recognize  that  no 
task  which  contributes  to  human  welfare  can  be 
justly  designated  as  “unwomanly.”  War  is  forcing 
not  a few,  but  many,  women  to  undertake  the  most 
difficult  of  tasks,  and  heaviest  of  responsibilities; 
and  they  are  giving  glowing  proof  of  the  powers  that 
lie  within  them. 

This  aspect  of  the  great  war  has  already  begun  to 
have  its  effect  in  the  Orient.  Among  the  warring 
nations  are  many  Oriental  countries;  and  especially 
in  Turkey  and  India  there  are  hundreds  of  families 
who  must  henceforth  be  supported  by  the  work  of 
women,  since  the  men  will  not  come  back.  And  in 
those  lands  where  the  influence  of  the  war  has  been 
less  direct,  it  is  nevertheless  very  real.  The  peoples 
of  the  world  are  too  closely  knit  together  today  for 
any  widespread  change  in  the  life  of  women  in  a 
number  of  nations  to  be  without  its  influence  on  the 
life  of  women  as  a whole. 

It  is  too  soon  to  give  many  concrete  illustrations 
of  the  ways  in  which  the  occupations  of  Oriental 
women  have  been  directly  affected  by  the  war.  In 
practically  every  country  of  the  Orient,  however, 
there  has  been  a gradually  increasing  number  of 
women  who,  during  the  past  few  years,  have  been 
taking  up  lines  of  work  other  than  those  of  home  or 
factory.  They  have  blazed  trails  into  the  business 
and  professional  world  over  which  we  may  expect  a 


THE  TRAIL  MAKERS 


Mohammedan 
women  in 
business. 


I25 

rapidly  growing  company  of  Oriental  women  to 
follow,  as  changing  conditions  necessitate  their 
economic  independence,  and  broadening  ideals  make 
it  possible  for  them  to  receive  the  education  which 
will  fit  them  for  positions  of  responsibility  and  leader- 
ship. 

“The  Mohammedan  attitude  toward 
the  self-support  of  women,”  says  a 
recent  writer  in  The  Moslem  World , 
“has  long  been  bounded  by  such  doctrine  as  the 
following,  ‘You  are  a woman,  and,  therefore,  you  may 
not  earn  your  bread  with  your  own  hands;  even  if  as 
an  unmarried  woman  you  have  talents  which  might 
enable  you  to  better  your  condition  and  that  of  your 
loved  ones,  you  may  not  so  use  them.  It  would  be  a 
disgrace.  If  your  husband  is  ill  and  unable  to  earn 
anything,  you  may  not  earn  the  means  for  the  main- 
tenance of  the  household.”’  Yet  there  have  been 
occasional  women  who  have  been  permitted  to  ‘earn 
their  bread  with  their  own  hands’  even  in  Turkey. 
“From  time  immemorial,”  says  Dr.  Mary  M.  Patrick, 
of  Constantinople,  “the  treasurer  of  the  royal  harem 
has  been  a woman,  and  has  had  working  under  her 
direction  a regular  bureau  of  trained  women  scribes.” 
To  be  sure,  these  women  have  not  been  trained  in 
shorthand  or  typewriting,  but  neither  have  the  men 
occupying  similar  positions.  A surprisingly  large 
number  of  Turkish  women  have  been  traders,  too, 
like  that  Lydia  of  long  ago,  the  seller  of  purple,  who 
journeyed  from  Thyatira  to  Philippi  in  the  pursuit 
of  her  business.  They,  too,  take  long  journeys  to 
Egypt  and  other  countries,  in  the  interests  of  their 
business.  But  the  Turkish  women  of  today  are  look- 


126  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

ing  forward  to  very  much  broader  and  more  general 
possibilities  of  self-support.  One  of  the  chief  aims  of 
that  energetic  organization  of  Turkish  women,  the 
“Society  for  the  Defense  of  Women’s  Rights”  is 
“to  encourage  women  to  earn  their  own  living  by 
their  own  work,  and  to  find  them  work,  in  order  to 
remedy  the  present  evils.” 

The  Society  for  the  Defense  of  Women’s  Rights 
conceives  its  task  to  be  not  simply  “to  encourage 
women  to  earn  their  own  living,”  but  to  help  to 
prepare  them  to  do  so,  and  to  secure  positions  for 
them.  Says  Ulviye  Hanoum,  one  of  its  leading  mem- 
bers, “Within  the  limits  of  our  means,  we  will  open 
workshops  for  our  women,  found  schools  wherein  to 
teach  useful  trades  and  arts,  and  secure  employment 
for  our  women  in  those  branches  of  commerce  and 
industry  where  women  are  employed.”  The  Turkish 
government,  too,  is  helping  to  prepare  women  for 
self-support  by  maintaining  in  Constantinople  the 
Senaye , or  Professional  School  for  Girls,  and  the 
Dar-ul-Moualimaty  or  Training  School  for  Women 
Teachers. 

One  of  the  chief  reasons  for  the  vigorous  efforts 
Mohammedan  women  are  making  to  free  themselves 
from  the  veil  is  that  it  is  an  effectual  barrier  between 
them  and  many  lines  of  work  which  they  wish  to 
enter.  “A  woman  with  a veil,”  says  Ulviye  Hanoum, 
“cannot  become  a ticket  agent,  a sales  girl,  a type- 
writer, or  a telephone  operator.”  It  was  regarded 
by  the  Society  for  the  Defense  of  Women’s  Rights 
as  “an  humble  but  excellent  beginning”  when 
through  their  efforts  seven  Turkish  girls,  veils  or  no 
veils,  were  given  employment  in  the  telephone  ex- 
change of  Constantinople. 


THE  TRAIL  MAKERS  1 27 

The  women  of  The  number  of  Indian  women  who 

India  and  the  are  employed  in  offices,  stores,  etc., 

business  world.  js  stjj[  negligible.  Such  positions  as 

these  are  almost  entirely  held  by  Eurasian  or  Euro- 
pean girls.  Nevertheless,  an  article  in  The  Lahore 
Tribune  stated  not  long  ago,  “It  is  believed  that 
there  are  no  fewer  than  fourteen  women  employed 
in  the  Criminal  Intelligence  Department  of  India, 
who  are  actually  at  work  in  various  capacities.” 
So  far  from  objecting  to  this,  the  Tribune  goes  on  to 
state  that  “in  India  there  are  special  reasons  for 
employing  women  in  the  public  departments,”  and 
adds  that  “nothing  will  prevent  a large  employment 
of  women  for  police  work  in  this  country  of  purdah 
customs.  In  the  Punjab  alone,”  the  article  continues, 
“where  twenty  thousand  offences  against  women  are 
brought  to  light  every  year,  police  women  are  sure  to  be 
of  considerable  help.”  The  decision  of  Chicago  to 
open  special  courts  for  women,  where  judges,  court 
clerks,  pleaders,  and  attendants  should  all  be  women 
met  with  the  hearty  approval  of  an  Urdu  paper  in 
India,  and  called  forth  an  earnest  article  recommend- 
ing that  similar  women’s  courts  be  established  in 
India.  There  is  a strong  feeling  on  the  part  of  many 
men  and  women  of  India  that  in  a country  where 
purdah  customs  prevail  so  largely,  an  increasing 
number  of  public  positions  of  various  kinds  must  be 
held  by  women. 

Chinese  business  “In  China,”  says  a missionary  of 
women.  many  years’  residence,  “many  women 

of  the  middle  class  know  all  about  their  husbands’ 
business  affairs,  and  I have  often  heard  it  said  that 
it  was  the  wife’s  head  rather  than  the  husband’s 


128 


WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 


which  made  the  business  prosper.”  A number  of 
Chinese  women  have  proved  themselves  fully  capable 
of  carrying  on  a business  left  to  them  by  a husband’s 
death.  “I  remember  a widow,”  says  this  same  mis- 
sionary, “who  had  charge  of  a large  shoe  store  in 
Shaohsing  from  the  time  of  her  husband’s  death 
until  her  son  grew  up.  She  was  very  successful  and 
was  honored  for  the  way  in  which  she  carried  on  the 
business.”  A worker  in  Paotingfu  writes  of  “a 
bright  girl,  an  only  child,  who  wore  men’s  clothes  in 
order  to  help  her  father  in  his  business.  She  had  a 
deep  voice  and  the  disguise  was  complete.” 

The  very  rarity  of  instances  such  as  these  is  con- 
vincing evidence  that  in  most  parts  of  China  any 
real  entrance  of  women  into  the  business  world  is 
un thought  of.  Even  in  the  largest  and  most  modern 
cities,  only  an  infinitesimal  number  of  girls  have 
taken  positions  as  stenographers  or  secretaries. 
a woman  There  came,  however,  to  the  Young 

banker.  Women’s  Christian  Association  of 

Shanghai  a few  months  ago,  a bright,  well-educated 
young  woman,  graduate  of  a mission  school,  who  was 
holding  a position  of  large  responsibility  in  the  busi- 
ness world.  That  such  a position  had  been  entrusted 
to  a woman  is  an  almost  startling  suggestion  of  the 
kind  of  work  which  educated  Chinese  girls  may  con- 
sider among  the  possibilities  in  the  future.  She  was 
the  manager  of  the  Women’s  Department  of  the 
Shanghai  Commercial  and  Savings  Bank.  “The 
appointment  of  a woman  to  such  a position  is  a new 
departure  in  banking  circles  in  China,  I being  the 
first  one  in  China  to  occupy  such  a position.  The 
Shanghai  Commercial  and  Savings  Bank  is  entirely  a 


THE  TRAIL  MAKERS 


I29 

Chinese  concern  under  Chinese  management,  but 
operated  on  the  same  principles,  and  with  the  same 
regard  to  sound  business  methods,  as  are  practiced 
by  foreign  banks,”  Miss  Nyier  told  the  Association 
secretary.  “My  appointment  as  manageress  of  the 
Women’s  Department  was  due  to  two  things:  First, 
quite  contrary  to  the  idea  prevailing  in  the  West  that 
Chinese  women  have  little  or  no  say  and  control  of 
the  family  exchequer,  and,  therefore,  have  no  money 
of  their  own  to  handle,  many  women  have  a large 
banking  business.  And  secondly,  my  late  father  and 
now  my  two  brothers,  having  large  businesses,  have 
given  me  great  opportunities  for  learning  both 
Chinese  and  foreign  business  methods.  Also,  not  a 
small  part  of  the  business  of  my  department  is  with 
the  foreign  ladies  and  foreign-educated  Chinese 
women  and  girls.  My  having  graduated  in  both 
English  and  Chinese  from  McTyeire  School  in 
Shanghai,  it  was  thought  by  the  directors  of  the  bank 
that*  I would  be  in  a position  to  handle  this  new 
department  in  banking  business  in  China  with  success 
and  profit  to  all  concerned.” 

The  business  It  is  in  Japan,  however,  that  the 
women  of  japan,  entrance  of  large  numbers  of  women 
into  the  business  world  is  not  a highly  probable 
future  event  to  be  prepared  for,  but  a very  present 
reality  to  be  faced.  Such  a situation  as  is  being 
brought  about  in  many  countries  today  by  the  great 
war,  came  in  Japan  more  than  a decade  ago  as  a 
result  of  her  war  with  Russia.  The  necessity  of 
supporting  a family  to  which  fathers  and  brothers 
did  not  come  back  led  many  girls  into  offices  of  many 
kinds.  Recent  statistics  show  that  as  many  as 


I30  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

12,543  women  are  employed  in  connection  with  the 
Department  of  Communications  of  the  Japanese 
government.  These  girls  are  acting  as  clerks,  stenog- 
raphers, bookkeepers,  etc.,  chiefly  in  railway  and 
post  offices.  Some  of  them  are  ticket  sellers.  The 
rapidly  growing  use  of  the  telephone  in  Japan  has 
brought  employment  to  large  numbers  of  girls.  In 
Tokyo  alone  approximately  twenty-five  hundred  girls 
are  working  in  telephone  exchanges.  Most  of  these 
girls  are  very  young,  the  majority  being  between 
seventeen  ?nd  twenty  years  old.  An  increasing 
number  of  girls  are  finding  work  as  stenographers 
and  secretaries  with  foreign  firms.  The  work  re- 
quired of  these  girls  necessitates  a fair  amount  of 
education  and  a knowledge  of  English,  as  most  of 
their  stenographic  work  is  done  in  that  language. 
Several  girls  from  mission  schools  have  gone  into  such 
positions  as  these. 

A few  Japanese  women  are  controlling  large  busi- 
ness interests.  A University  professor  who  not  long 
ago  returned  from  a visit  to  Japan,  when  asked  which 
of  the  many  things  he  had  seen  had  interested  him 
most,  promptly  replied,  “Mrs.  Hirooka.”  Mrs. 
Hirooka  was  a very  young  woman  when  she  came 
into  full  control  of  the  large  banking  business  of  the 
Hirooka  family,  who  were  one  of  the  banking  agents 
of  the  old  feudal  barons.  Political  changes  had 
wrought  havoc  with  the  Hirooka  finances,  and  the 
business  was  perilously  near  disaster  when  little 
Mrs.  Hirooka  took  it  in  hand.  She  courageously  in- 
troduced radical  changes  and  within  a very  short 
time  had  built  up  one  of  the  most  successful  banking 
establishments  in  Japan. 


THE  TRAIL  MAKERS 


Oriental  women 
in  education. 


131 

There  have  been  Oriental  women 
teachers  ever  since  girls  began  to 
graduate  from  the  mission  schools.  Wherever  there 
was  a girl  who  had  had  a chance  to  study  and  who 
was  not  forced  to  take  up  household  duties  at  once, 
she  never  lacked  for  employment.  The  difficulty 
lay  in  deciding  whether  she  was  more  needed  to  help 
with  the  younger  students  in  her  alma  mater  or  to 
take  charge  of  some  little  day  school  in  town  or 
village  where  there  was  no  teacher.  The  demand  for 
trained  Oriental  women  as  teachers  in  Christian 
schools  has  always  been,  and  still  is,  greater  than  the 
supply.  The  well-equipped  Christian  girl  who  does 
not  marry  as  soon  as  she  has  completed  her  education 
can  always  be  certain  of  a good  position  in  the  schools 
of  her  mission.  But  the  Christian  schools  are  not  the 
only  applicants  for  the  services  of  educated  Oriental 
women  nowadays.  The  increasing  interest  in  the 
education  of  girls  which  is  so  marked  in  practically 
every  country  of  the  East  today  has  created  an  im- 
perative demand  for  women  teachers  in  every  kind 
of  school,  government,  private,  and  mission.  The 
Orient  approves  the  employment  of  men  teachers 
in  girls’  schools  only  in  rare  cases.  The  most  serious 
handicap  to  the  progress  of  women’s  education  in  the 
Orient  today  is  probably  nowhere  any  longer  the 
indifference  or  antagonism  of  parents,  or  of  the 
community  in  general,  probably  not  even  early 
marriage  or  the  purdah,  but  the  dearth  of  properly 
equipped  women  teachers. 

Women  teachers  lt  was  recently  reported  that  seventy 
in  Mohammedan  schools  for  girls  had  been  established 
in  a single  city  in  Persia,  with  an 


lands. 


132  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

enrollment  of  approximately  five  thousand.  But  the 
report  went  on  to  say,  “Scarcely  half  a dozen  of  these 
schools  are  doing  good,  efficient  work,  but  what  could 
be  expected  when  almost  none  of  the  women  in 
charge  have  ever  been  to  school  themselves,  and  have 
only  the  most  vague  idea  of  what  real  education  is? 
It  is  to  be  wondered  at  that  the  schools  are  ac- 
complishing as  much  as  they  are,  and  the  Persian 
women  who  have  undertaken  this  great  task  in  the 
face  of  difficulties  so  momentous  are  worthy  of  our 
deepest  admiration  and  sympathy.”  The  Persian 
government  is  as  yet  establishing  no  girls’  schools, 
and  making  no  effort  to  train  women  teachers.  Its 
only  connection  with  women’s  education  consists  in 
requiring  all  persons  desiring  to  open  schools  for 
girls  to  secure  a permit  from  the  Department  of 
Education,  and  in  appointing  a woman  supervisor  to 
visit  the  schools  and  report  on  them  to  the  Minister 
of  Education.  The  only  sources  of  supply  for  trained 
Persian  women  teachers  are,  therefore,  the  mission 
schools. 

The  training  of  The  Turkish  government  has  under- 
teachers. taken  much  greater  responsibility 

for  the  education  of  girls.  It  is  impossible  to  gain 
definite  information  about  what  has  been  done  since 
the  war,  but  at  the  time  the  war  broke  out,  the 
government  was  making  every  effort  to  prepare 
women  to  enter  the  profession  of  teaching,  which  is 
a newer  profession  for  veiled  Mohammedan  women 
than  for  any  other  Oriental  women.  The  Dar-al- 
Moualimat,  or  Training  School  for  Women  Teachers, 
maintained  by  the  government,  enrolled,  in  1914, 
143  students  from  practically  every  part  of  the 


THE  TRAIL  MAKERS 


*33 

Ottoman  empire.  The  government  has  offered  special 
inducements  to  girls  from  the  provinces,  some- 
times meeting  all  their  expenses,  in  order  that  they 
might  go  back  to  their  own  homes  and  conduct 
girls’  schools  there. 

The  Turkish  government  has,  however,  taken  an 
even  more  advanced  step  than  this,  in  sending  some 
of  its  women  to  schools  which  are  conducted  along 
the  most  progressive  western  lines.  Soon  after  the 
constitution  was  declared,  a number  of  Ottoman 
women  were  sent  to  Europe  to  study.  Some  of  these 
women  have  since  become  teachers  in  government 
schools  in  Turkey.  Others  have  been  sent  to  the 
Constantinople  College  to  be  trained  at  government 
expense.  At  the  time  the  war  broke  out  thirty-five 
girls  were  being  trained  as  teachers,  either  in  Europe 
or  in  the  Constantinople  College  at  the  expense  of  the 
government. 

It  is  to  be  expected  that  the  British  government 
in  Egypt  would  make  some  provision  for  teacher 
training.  Two  excellent  training  schools  are  pre- 
paring girls  to  teach  both  in  higher  and  preparatory 
schools. 

India’s  women  Approximately  twelve  hundred  worn- 
teachers.  en  of  India  are  in  educational  positions 

today.  Some  of  them  are  working  alone  in  little 
village  primary  schools,  some  are  at  the  head  of  the 
large  staffs  of  finely  equipped  city  institutions,  some 
are  teaching  wee  brown  babies  the  three  R’s,  and 
others  are  professors  in  government  or  mission 
colleges.  A few  are  affording  convincing  testimony 
of  the  change  which  is  coming  in  India’s  attitude 


134  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

toward  women,  by  actually  spending  their  entire 
time  in  travel  as  district  inspectresses. 

Many  of  these  teachers  are  shining  examples  of 
the  splendid  work  of  which  women  of  India  are  capa- 
ble when  given  an  education;  others  are  less  so.  But 
the  poor  or  mediocre  work  being  done  by  some  is 
frequently  more  the  fault  of  circumstances  than  of 
the  teacher.  Vacancies  are  so  many,  trained  women 
so  few,  that  there  is  an  almost  irresistible  temptation 
at  times  to  put  a girl  into  a position  which  she  can 
fill  at  a pinch,  rather  than  to  wait  until  she  has  had 
enough  training  to  enable  her  to  fill  it  with  complete 
success.  The  interval  between  the  time  when  the 
girl  leaves  school  and  the  time  she  marries  is  so  dis- 
couragingly  short  in  such  hundreds  of  cases!  Or 
again,  the  combination  of  schools  which  need  teach- 
ers, and  families  which  need  financial  help,  may  lead 
to  the  appointment  of  a married  woman  to  a task 
for  which  other  duties  leave  her  very  insufficient 
freshness  of  mind,  or  time  for  preparation.  The 
comment  of  a Bombay  Public  Instruction  Report 
on  the  task  of  such  a teacher  puts  the  case  well. 
“In  addition  to  the  long  hours  at  school  she  has 
arduous  home  duties  to  perform.  In  many  cases  she 
is  the  sole  bread  winner  for  five  or  six,  none  of  whom 
consider  it  incumbent  on  them  to  help  her  with  the 
household  work.  Rising  at  five  in  the  morning  or 
earlier,  she  has  to  begin  her  daily  timetable  which 
extends  over  seventeen  hours.  It  is  marvelous  that 
she  is  able  to  work  as  cheerfully  as  she  does.” 

At  the  opposite  end  of  the  scale  are  women  such 
as  Miss  Lena  Sorabji,  head  of  the  Eden  Girls’  High 
School  at  Dacca,  which  is  known  as  “the  model  high 
school  for  the  entire  province  of  Eastern  Bengal”; 


THE  TRAIL  MAKERS 


135 

Miss  Cursetji,  who  for  more  than  twenty-five  years 
has  been  devoting  most  of  her  time  and  energy  to  the 
Alexandria  High  School;  Miss  Chunder  Mukki  Bose, 
the  first  woman  graduate  of  the  University  of  Cal- 
cutta, for  years  head  mistress  of  the  large  Bethune 
Government  College  for  women;  another  Miss 
Sorabji,  head  of  the  Victoria  High  School  at  Poona; 
Lilavati  Singh,  at  the  time  of  her  early  death 
the  president  of  the  Isabella  Thoburn  College  for 
women;  and  many  others  whose  lives  are  wholly 
given  to  the  cause  of  the  education  of  India’s  women. 
The  crying  need  Miss  Minna  Cowan  in  her  book  on 
of  teachers.  Ehe  Education  of  Women  of  India 

makes  it  very  clear  that  the  solution  of  the  most 
knotty  problems  connected  with  the  education  of 
India’s  women  is  dependent  upon  securing  a far 
larger  number  of  trained  women  teachers.  That  an 
increasing  number  of  Indian  women  will  be  willing 
to  become  teachers  in  the  future  is  suggested  by 
numerous  things.  The  economic  pressure  caused  by 
the  war  will  make  it  necessary  for  more  women  to 
earn  money.  And  the  pride  which  many  of  the  people 
of  India  are  showing  in  the  girls  who  have  won  edu- 
cational honors  suggests  that  there  will  be  more 
general  approval  of  educational  work  for  women 
than  of  almost  any  other  occupation. 

_ , ..  As  public  opinion  gradually  makes  it 

India  s widows.  r . r 0 • 1 1 r t 1 • 

more  and  more  possible  for  Indian 
widows  to  play  their  part  in  the  work  of  the  world, 
a great  unused  source  of  supply  for  teachers  will  be 
opened  up.  The  beginnings  already  made  in  this 
direction  are  among  the  most  encouraging  signs  of 
the  times.  Such  a home  for  Brahmin  widows  as  that 


I36  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

in  Madras,  described  in  a recent  letter  from  Miss 
Alice  Van  Doren,  is  a little  garden  spot  in  the  dreary 
waste  of  Indian  widowhood  which  gives  more  than  a 
suggestion  of  how  that  sad  and  desolate  desert  may 
indeed  be  made  to  blossom  like  the  rose.  Miss  Van 
Doren  found  the  thirty-six  little  widows  in  the 
garden,  most  of  them  engaged  in  a jolly  game  of 
badminton.  “There  were  no  shaven  heads,,  no 
widow’s  clothes,  no  fasts,  nothing  of  the  sombre  to 
mark  them  from  any  other  group  of  Indian  school 
girls.  And  what  pleased  me  most,’’  says  Miss  Van 
Doren,  “was  that  almost  every  girl  had  something, 
be  it  gold  necklace  or  a string  of  glass  beads,  dangling 
around  her  neck.  That  ‘dangle’  to  my  mind  seemed 
the  burning  of  the  last  hedge  that  cuts  off  the  typical 
widow  from  her  kind.  This  home  is  a government 
institution  founded  with  the  twofold  purpose  of 
giving  a chance  in  life  to  the  otherwise  hopeless 
widows  of  the  Madras  Presidency,  and  of  providing 
teachers  for  Hindu  girls’  schools,  for  whom  there  is 
always  a great  and  unsupplied  demand.  If  you  ask  a 
little  widow  why  she  is  there,  she  will  reply  without  a 
moment’s  hesitation,  ‘To  get  an  education  and  to 
work  for  my  country.’  As  a government  institution, 
there  can,  of  course,  be  no  Christian  instruction,  and 
caste  is  observed  to  a certain  extent;  yet  the  work 
seems  to  me  truly  missionary  in  the  widest  sense  of 
the  term,  for  it  lifts  one  of  the  heaviest  burdens 
women  can  bear.” 

The  head  of  this  institution,  Gubbu  Lackshmi,  is 
herself  a living  example  of  the  fullness  and  service 
which  life  may  hold  for  a widow  who  is  given  a 
chance.  Herself  a Brahmin  widow,  but  the  daughter 


A COOKING  CLASS  IN  JAPAN 


SOCIAL  SERVICE  IN  CHINA 


THE  TRAIL  MAKERS 


*37 

of  a liberal-minded  father,  she  received  her  B.  A. 
from  the  Presidency  College,  and  later  took  a full 
course  in  manual  training.  She  is  a most  wise  and 
understanding  guide  of  the  little  Brahmin  widows, 
who  under  her  direction  “are  learning  to  walk  the 
difficult,  the  fascinating  path  of  the  new  womanhood 
of  the  world.” 

Even  greater  and  brighter  promise  for  the  future 
is  given  at  Mukti  where  not  thirty-six,  but  two 
thousand  widows  and  orphans  of  India  are  learning 
the  way  to  new  life.  This  Christian  home  for  widows 
was  not  established  and  is  not  maintained  by  the 
government.  The  fertile  farm  of  four  hundred  acres, 
the  weaving  establishment,  the  printing  press,  the 
manual-training  shops,  the  school,  and  all  the  rest 
of  the  great  institution  came  into  being  through  the 
work  of  one  woman,  and  it  is  under  her  skillful 
direction  that  the  great  institution  has  grown  from 
strength  to  strength.  She,  too,  is  an  Indian  widow, 
radiant  assurance  to  every  discouraged  little  widow 
who  comes  to  Mukti,  of  the  joy  and  service  which 
life  may  hold  even  for  such  as  she.  And  it  is  to  a 
fullness  of  life  even  beyond,  far  beyond,  that  to  which 
Gubbu  Lackshmi  guides  her  little  Brahmins,  that 
Pandita  Ramabai  leads  the  widows  of  Mukti,  for 
the  Lord  of  her  life  is  One  whom  Gubbu  Lackshmi 
does  not  yet  know,  and  who  is  the  Way,  the  Truth, 
and  the  Life. 

The  whole  problem  of  training  teachers  is  one 
which  is  engaging  the  earnest  thought  and  attention 
of  all  educators  in  India. 

In  no  land  of  the  East  is  enthusiasm 
for  the  education  of  women  deeper 
and  more  marked  than  in  that  great 


China’s 

educational 

renaissance. 


I38  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

country  where  for  uncounted  centuries  reverence  for 
education  has  been  the  dominating  influence.  China’s 
political  revolutions  may  have  tended  to  make  us 
forget  that  the  greatest  educational  renaissance 
which  the  world  has  ever  seen  has  taken  place  there 
within  the  past  few  years.  But  the  most  spectacular 
revolutions  are  not  always  the  most  significant,  and 
the  fact  that  China  has  determined  that  her  women 
shall  be  educated  may  mean  as  much  to  her  and  to 
the  world  as  her  decision  to  adopt  a republican  form 
of  government. 

The  need  of  How  many  Chinese  girls  are  teachers 
women  teachers,  today  it  is  impossible  to  say,  but 
certain  it  is  that  there  are  far  fewer  than  the  situation 
demands.  Before  1900  only  the  Christian  schools 
offered  employment  to  women  teachers,  for  the 
simple  reason  that  they  were  the  only  schools  for 
girls  in  the  country.  But  today,  while  the  demand  for 
trained  Oriental  women  in  mission  schools  is  not 
less,  but  even  greater,  because  of  the  larger  numbers 
of  girls  who  are  seeking  entrance  to  them,  there  are, 
from  one  end  of  the  land  to  the  other,  hundreds  of 
private  and  government  schools  for  girls,  whose  need 
for  trained  teachers  is  well-nigh  desperate. 

As  in  India,  so  also  in  China,  the  result  of  this  sort 
of  situation  is  that  girls  who  have  had  little  educa- 
tion and  no  training  in  teaching  are  influenced  to 
accept  positions  in  which  they  cannot  possibly  give 
good  service.  But  given  half  a chance  what  teachers 
the  Chinese  women  make!  The  Christian  schools 
have  been  affording  proof  of  this  for  many  years;  and 
the  reports  of  every  mission  bear  testimony  to  the 
loyal,  splendidly  efficient  work  which  the  graduates 


THE  TRAIL  MAKERS 


*39 

of  girls’  schools  have  done  as  teachers,  even  when 
greatly  handicapped  by  lack  of  equipment,  trained 
associates,  etc. 

The  chief  source  The  Christian  schools  are  still,  and 
of  supply.  will  probably  be  for  many  years  to 

come,  the  chief  source  of  supply  for  Chinese  women 
teachers.  The  government  has  established  teachers’ 
training  schools;  but  China  has  had  little  leisure 
during  these  last  years  to  develop  her  educational 
plans,  and  it  is  not  surprising  that  it  has  proved 
almost  impossible  to  secure  well-equipped  instructors 
for  these  schools,  to  say  nothing  of  turning  out 
trained  teachers  from  them. 

The  indemnity  The  Chinese  government  has  taken 
fund  students.  another  step  in  the  interests  of  wom- 

en’s education  which,  though  it  may  seem  like  a 
comparatively  small  thing,  is  likely  to  have  im- 
portant results.  For  several  years  after  the  United 
States  remitted  the  Boxer  indemnity  fund,  the 
government  used  it  to  send  men  students  only  to  the 
colleges  of  the  United  States.  In  the  autumn  of  1914, 
however,  ten  Chinese  girls  were  among  the  indem- 
nity-fund students,  and  the  government  has  an- 
nounced its  intention  of  sending  ten  women  every 
two  years,  for  five  years’  study,  until  fifty  have 
come.  The  second  group  of  ten  arrived  in  September, 
1916,  and  twenty  Chinese  girls  are  now  studying  in 
colleges  of  the  United  States,  supported  by  govern- 
ment indemnity-fund  scholarships.  Not  all  of  them 
are  preparing  to  teach,  but  the  majority  of  them  are 
expecting  to  go  into  educational  work  when  they 
return.  These  girls  are  chosen  by  competitive  ex- 
amination, and  are  one  and  all  making  the  kind  of 


I4O  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

record  in  college  which  inspires  their  professors  to 
glowing  prophecies  about  what  they  will  do  when  they 
return  to  China. 

The  women  Tiny  though  she  looks  beside  her 

teachers  of  great  neighbors,  China  and  India, 

japan.  Japan  can  boast  a far  greater  number 

of  women  teachers  than  any  other  Oriental  country. 
Approximately  thirty  thousand  young  women  are 
teaching  in  primary  and  high  schools,  and  their 
preparation  for  their  task  probably  averages  con- 
siderably higher  than  that  of  the  women  teachers  of 
any  other  Oriental  country.  Eut  such  a situation  as 
this  is  to  be  expected.  Women’s  normal  schools  have 
been  established  by  the  government  in  every  prov- 
ince, and  there  are  two  “Women’s  Higher  Normal 
Schools”  in  Tokyo  and  Nara  for  the  training  of 
teachers  for  the  advanced  grades.  The  government 
requires  all  teachers  in  its  schools  to  have  certificates, 
and  these  certificates  are  granted  only  to  girls  who 
are  graduates  of  government  higher  schools,  or  who 
have  satisfactorily  passed  the  government  examina- 
tion for  a teacher’s  license.  But  in  spite  of  these 
efforts  to  secure  thoroughly  good  teaching,  the 
number  of  teaching  positions  in  Japan,  also,  still 
exceeds  the  number  of  well-equipped  teachers,  and 
there  are  not  a few  among  the  thirty  thousand 
Japanese  women  teachers  who  have  not  had  enough 
preparation  to  be  able  to  do  good  work. 

But  there  are  many  who  are  proving  how  skillful 
well-prepared  Japanese  women  are  in  handling 
educational  problems.  Prominent  among  them  are 
Miss  Tami  Mitani,  head  of  the  large  Presbyterian 
school  in  Tokyo,  the  Joshi  Gakuin,  and  Miss  Ume 


THE  TRAIL  MAKERS 


14I 

Tsuda,  founder  and  principal  of  the  Joshi  Eigaku. 
Miss  Tsuda,  before  she  established  her  own  school, 
was  a teacher  in  the  Peeresses’  School,  and  also  in 
the  Women’s  Higher  Normal  School  in  Tokyo,  and 
her  splendid  service  to  the  cause  of  women’s  educa- 
tion in  Japan  was  recognized  by  the  present  Emperor 
at  the  time  of  his  coronation,  by  the  awarding  of  the 
rare  gift  of  imperial  decoration. 

Whatever  other  occupations  may  or  may  not  be 
open  to  her,  the  educated  woman  of  the  Orient  can 
always  be  sure  of  employment  as  a teacher.  Even 
the  most  conservative  folk  in  the  Orient,  as  in  other 
lands,  count  the  training  and  teaching  of  the  young  a 
suitable  employment  for  “the  gentler  sex.”  And  there 
is  no  country  in  the  Orient,  one  might  almost  say  no 
province,  no  township,  no  city,  where  the  demand 
for  qualified  women  teachers  does  not  far  and  away 
exceed  the  supply  of  them. 

Women  writers  Even  in  the  days  before  any  other  self- 
of  the  Near  East,  expression  was  possible,  a few  Moham- 
medan women  were  sending  the  children  of  their 
brains  out  to  the  world  into  which  they  themselves 
might  not  go.  And  even  under  the  tyrannical  rule  of 
Hamid,  they  were  permitted  to  publish  articles  and 
books,  provided  they  expressed  themselves  discreetly 
and  on  safe  subjects.  One  of  the  best-known  of  the 
Turkish  women  who  wrote  before  the  declaration  of 
the  Constitution  is  Fatima  Alieh  Hanoum,  daughter 
of  Jevdet  Pasha,  who  was  a prominent  Turkish 
writer  and  statesman.  Few  Turkish  women  had 
attempted  anything  more  serious  than  novels,  but 
Fatima  Alieh  Hanoum  is  a student  of  philosophy  and 
history,  and,  although  she  has  written  a few  novels, 


I42  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

they  have  always  been  the  vehicle  for  social  and 
ethical  teaching.  Her  younger  sister,  Emine  Samie 
Hanoum,  is  also  a constant  contributor  to  journals 
and  magazines.  Nighiar  Hanoum  is  another  Turkish 
woman  who  has  for  several  years  been  bringing  out 
a number  of  books,  both  prose  and  poetry.  Turkish 
critics  say  that  some  of  her  poems  have  marked  an 
epoch  in  modern  Turkish  lyric  poetry. 

Madame  Haiideh  The  best-known  writer  among  young- 
Salih-  er  Turkish  women  is  Madame  Haiideh 

Salih,  one  of  the  few  women  ever  decorated  by  His 
Majesty,  the  Sultan.  She  received  this  unusual 
honor  at  the  ripe  age  of  fifteen,  in  recognition  of  her 
services  to  her  country  in  having  successfully  trans- 
lated an  English  book,  Josiah  Abbott’s  The  Mother 
in  the  Home , into  Turkish.  This  achievement  filled 
Haiideh  Hanoum’s  father  with  such  pride  that  he 
presented  one  thousand  copies  of  the  little  book  to 
the  wives  of  his  soldiers.  But  he  did  more  than  that. 
He  sacrificed  his  own  chances  of  advancement  in 
order  that  his  daughter’s  keen  mind  might  have  the 
best  training  available.  If  the  Sultan  would  permit 
her  to  attend  a Ghiaur  (infidel)  school,  he  would  not 
ask  for  any  rise  in  the  Department  of  the  Treasury. 
The  Sultan  agreed  to  this  bargain  and  in  1901 
Haiideh  Hanoum  took  her  Bachelor  of  Arts  degree 
from  the  Constantinople  College,  the  first  Turkish 
woman  to  win  such  a degree. 

The  first  few  years  after  her  graduation  were  very 
trying  ones  to  Haiideh  Hanoum.  She  married,  and 
became  the  mother  of  two  sons.  But  to  be  shut  up  in 
a harem,  veiled,  with  practically  no  intellectual 
companionship,  no  opportunity  to  use  her  keen  mind 


THE  TRAIL  MAKERS 


*43 

or  the  splendid  education  she  had  had,  was  torture  to 
a woman  of  her  spirit  and  ability.  Writing  was  her  only 
possible  means  of  self-expression,  but  there  was  scant 
comfort  in  writing  articles  which  could  never  be 
published.  All  modern  literature  was  ruthlessly  re- 
pressed during  those  years,  and  the  presence  of  spies 
everywhere  made  it  unsafe  for  a woman  like  Halideh 
Hanoum,  burning  with  the  desire  to  help  bring  free- 
dom and  life  to  her  countrywomen,  to  utter  a word  on 
the  subjects  which  were  foremost  in  her  thought.  But 
with  the  revolution  came  the  opportunity  for  speech. 
Halideh  Hanoum  memorialized  the  Fourth  Army 
Corps,  which  had  effected  the  revolution,  in  a 
dithyrambic  address,  which  so  perfectly  and  power- 
fully expressed  the  feelings  of  the  Young  Turks,  that 
she  became  the  idol  of  the  people.  The  Tanine,  one 
of  the  leading  papers  of  the  Young  Turks,  asked  her 
to  become  a contributing  editor,  and  she  published 
article  after  article  on  such  subjects  as  women’s 
education,  and  the  curricula  which  the  new  schools 
should  adopt,  historical  sketches  of  Turkish  women 
who  had  lived  and  achieved  in  the  early  days,  im- 
passioned essays  on  the  sorrows  of  the  Cretan 
Moslems  and  the  cruel  massacres  of  Armenians 
near  Adana,  etc.  Seven  papers  and  magazines  asked 
her  to  let  them  publish  some  of  her  articles,  and 
many  of  the  things  which  she  had  written  during 
her  years  of  seclusion  were  gathered  together  into 
books. 

Then  came  the  second  revolution.  Abdul  Hamid, 
in  determined  effort  to  regain  power,  sent  his  agents 
through  the  city,  with  a list  of  two  hundred  army 
officers  and  two  hundred  civilians  who  were  to  be 


144  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

killed.  On  the  list  of  civilians  were  the  names  of  two 
women,  one  of  them  Halideh  Hanoum,  whose  pen  the 
Sultan  regarded  as  quite  as  dangerous  as  any  sword. 
She  fled  for  her  life  with  her  little  boys  to  the  Con- 
stantinople College  and  lay  hidden  there  for  days, 
while  the  Sultan’s  followers  destroyed  her  home, 
the  Tanine  office,  and  all  her  manuscripts.  Finally, 
her  friends  succeeded  in  spiriting  her  away  to  Egypt, 
where  she  stayed  until  the  Young  Turk  Party  came 
back  into  power. 

Halideh  Hanoum  has  published  eight  novels,  and  a 
volume  of  lectures  on  pedagogy,  and  has  contributed 
innumerable  articles  on  a great  variety  of  subjects  to 
many  magazines  in  Turkey,  England,  and  America. 
She  writes  with  equal  ease  in  Turkish  and  English. 
Hers  is  a rare  literary  gift,  but  few  if  any  of  her 
writings  are  simply  literature,  for  she  has  definitely 
dedicated  her  gift  of  expression  to  the  service  of  her 
people.  Not  simply  a writer,  but  “educator,  philan- 
thropist, politician,  speaker,”  is  Halideh  Hanoum, 
said  the  London  Nation  a few  years  ago,  in  preface  to 
one  of  her  essays. 

The  Women’s  That  there  are  many  other  Turkish 
World.  women  who  can  and  do  write  is 

evidenced  by  the  existence  of  an  attractive  illustrated 
weekly,  The  Women's  World , the  editor  of  which  is  a 
woman,  and  which  accepts  no  articles  which  are  not 
wrritten  by  women.  “The  issues  of  The  Womens 
World,”  says  the  Literary  Digest,  “prove  that  the 
feminist  movement  in  Turkey  is  to  be  taken  serious- 
ly.” It  has  twice  been  suspended  by  the  Turkish 
government,  but  this,  declares  its  editor,  Ulviye 
Hanoum,  has  been  due  to  misunderstandings. 


THE  TRAIL  MAKERS 


145 

A few  women  of  Egypt  have  given  themselves  to 
writing.  The  history  of  Egypt  which  is  used  in 
government  schools,  by  order  of  the  Ministry  of 
Education,  and  which  is  meeting  a long-felt  need,  is  , 
the  work  of  a woman,  the  late  Mrs.  Hind  Ammun,  a ' 
graduate  of  the  United  Presbyterian  girls’  school  in 
Cairo. 

Some  of  the  women  of  Persia,  too,  are  writing.  A 
missionary  reports  a paper  devoted  to  the  interests 
of  women  and  their  homes,  edited  by  two  Persian 
ladies. 

„ ..  On  the  shelves  of  a New  York  book 

Sarojmi  Naidu.  t • 1 1 1 1 i 

store,  1 picked  up  the  other  day  a 
little  brown  book,  brought  out  by  a publisher  of 
New  York,  but  written  by  a woman  of  India.  Amer- 
ica has  become  very  familiar  in  recent  years  with 
The  Crescent  Moon , Gitanjali , and  other  books  of 
RabrindanathTagore,  but  only  a few  of  us  have  so  far 
discovered  The  Golden  Threshold , The  Bird  of  Time , 
and  The  Broken  Wing , the  three  volumes  of  Mrs. 
Sarojini  Naidu’s  hauntingly  beautiful  poems.  Saro- 
jini  Naidu  began  to  write  poetry  when  she  was  a 
little  girl  of  only  eleven  years  old,  though  her  first 
book,  The  Golden  Threshold , was  not  published  until 
1905.  Four  years  ago  she  was  elected  a Fellow  of  the 
Royal  Society  of  Literature  in  Great  Britain.  Just 
how  great  a tribute  this  is,  can  be  appreciated  only 
when  one  understands  how  limited  the  membership 
of  that  society  is,  how  few  have  been  the  women  of 
any  nation  to  be  elected  to  it,  and  how  rarely  any 
foreigner,  man  or  woman,  is  invited  to  join  it.  “Mrs 
Naidu’s  poetry,”  says  Edmund  Gosse,  in  an  intro- 
duction to  The  Bird  of  Time , “springs  from  the  very 


I46  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

soil  of  India;  her  spirit,  although  it  employs  the 
English  language  as  its  vehicle,  has  no  other  tie  with 
the  West.”  All  the  glowing  color  and  vivid  imagery 
of  the  Orient  are  in  her  poems;  together  with  a rare 
combination  of  passionate  power  and  exquisite 
delicacy  of  expression.  The  mysticism  of  them  could 
have  come  only  from  India,  and  the  wistful  tender- 
ness of  them  only  from  a woman  of  India.  The 
American  Review  of  Reviews  not  long  ago  published 
her  Salutation  to  the  Eternal  Peace  as  an  illustration 
of  “the  burning  fervency”  of  her  “pursuit  of  the 
Eternal,”  so  typical  of  India  and  India’s  women. 

Salutation  to  Eternal  Peace 

“Men  say  the  world  is  full  of  fear  and  hate, 

And  all  life’s  ripening  harvest-fields  await 
The  restless  sickle  of  relentless  fate. 

But  I,  sweet  Soul,  rejoice  that  I was  born, 

When  from  the  climbing  terraces  of  corn 
I watch  the  golden  orioles  of  Thy  morn. 

What  care  I for  the  world’s  desire  and  pride, 

Who  know  the  silver  wings  that  gleam  and  glide, 
The  homing  pigeons  of  Thine  eventide  ? 

What  care  I for  the  world’s  loud  weariness 
Who  dream  in  twilight  granaries  Thou  dost  bless 
With  delicate  sheaves  of  mellow  silences?  .... 

For  my  glad  heart  is  drunk  and  drenched  with  Thee, 
O,  inmost  wine  of  living  ecstacy, 

O,  intimate  essence  of  Eternity.” 

But  there  is  nothing  of  the  spirit  of  the  fanatic  in 
Mrs.  Naidu’s  mysticism.  It  does  not,  after  all,  draw 
her  to  dreams  apart  from  “the  world’s  loud  weari- 


THE  TRAIL  MAKERS 


147 

ness.”  In  her  new  book,  The  Broken  Wing,  dedicated 
“To  the  Dream  of  Today  and  the  Hope  of  To- 
morrow,” are  poems  which  more  truly  interpret  her 
spirit  and  that  of  the  leaders  among  the  women  of 
India  today.  One  of  them  she  entitles  “Invincible”: 

“O  Fate,  betwixt  the  grinding  stones  of  Pain, 

Tho’  you  have  crushed  my  life  like  broken  grain, 

Lo!  I will  leaven  it  with  my  tears  and  knead 
The  bread  of  Hope  to  comfort  and  to  feed 
The  myriad  hearts  for  whom  no  harvests  blow, 

Save  bitter  herbs  of  woe. 

“Tho’  in  the  flame  of  sorrow  you  have  thrust 
My  flowering  soul  and  trod  it  into  dust, 

Behold  it  doth  reblossom  like  a grove 
To  shelter  under  quickening  boughs  of  Love, 

The  myriad  souls  for  whom  no  gardens  bloom 
Save  bitter  buds  of  doom.” 

Other  women  A few  other  women  of  India  there 
writers  of  India,  have  been  who  have  given  themselves 
to  the  writing  of  books.  Toru  Dutt,  the  young 
Indian  Christian  poet,  lived  long  enough  to  bring  out 
poems  which  India  still  treasures;  and  Mrs.  Sat- 
thianadan,  daughter  of  the  first  Brahmin  converts  to 
Christianity,  had  written  two  brilliant  novels  before 
her  early  death.  The  imaginative  genius  of  the  people 
of  India  and  their  gift  for  expression  leave  no  room 
for  doubt  of  the  truth  of  the  statement  recently 
made  by  a missionary  teacher  in  an  article  on  India’s 
women  writers:  “The  heritage  is  there;  it  is  merely 
hidden  by  the  cobwebs  of  disuse.  It  awaits  the  magic 
touch.” 


WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 


I48 


Women  editors 
of  India. 


There  are  a rather  amazingly  large 
number  of  women’s  magazines  in 
India  today,  most  of  them  edited  by  Indian  women. 
Mrs.  Satthianadan  of  Madras,  an  earnest  Christian, 
is  one  of  the  best-known  and  most  successful  women 
editors  in  India.  Srimati  Swarna  Kunara  Devi  is 
the  editor  of  a women’s  magazine  in  Bengali,  and 
has  also  written  a number  of  novels  in  the  vernacular, 
one  of  which  has  been  translated  into  English.  Mrs. 
Harkishen  Lai  of  Lahore,  graduate  of  Bombay  Uni- 
versity, edits  a women’s  magazine,  The  Moon , in 
Hindu;  a Tamil  monthly  for  women  is  edited  by 
Miss  Thayarammah;  Mrs.  Sarayubala  Dutta  brings 
out  another  women’s  monthly  in  Dacca;  and  Miss 
KumudiniMitra  is  the  editor  of  The  Supravat.  Nor  are 
the  Mohammedan  women  of  India  without  their  own 
magazines.  Miss  Fatima  of  Lahore  edits  for  those  of 
them  who  speak  Hindustani  a monthly  known  as 
Shareef  Bibi  {The  Gentlewoman)  and  a Mohammedan 
woman  in  Delhi  brings  out  another  magazine  for  the 
women  of  that  section  of  the  country. 

Women  editors  One  of  China’s  classics  is  a book 
of  China.  written  centuries  ago  on  the  education 

of  girls,  by  Lady  Tsao.  But  few  Chinese  women  of 
modern  times  have  followed  the  example  of  Lady 
Tsao.  There  is  no  reason,  however,  why  many  of  the 
Chinese  girls  who  have  had  enough  education  to 
make  it  possible  should  not  write,  and  the  great  need 
of  the  right  kind  of  books  for  the  girls  and  women  of 
China  makes  it  very  desirable  that  some  women 
should  give  themselves  to  the  production  of  litera- 
ture. A few  women’s  magazines  there  are,  edited  by 
Chinese  women.  An  example  of  one  type  is  the 


THE  TRAIL  MAKERS  I49 

Women's  Monthly , the  first  number  of  which  ap- 
peared in  a gaily  colored  cover,  on  the  front  of  which 
was  depicted  a young  Chinese  woman,  in  an  amazing 
Westernized  costume,  nonchalantly  shouldering  a 
gun  and  flipping  her  fingers  at  a dog  behind  her.  Says 
a Chinese  girl,  who  studied  this  issue  carefully: 
“With  the  exception  of  three  articles,  the  magazine 
is  absolutely  worthless.  Not  only  is  the  Chinese 
extremely  poor,  but  the  ideals  are  very  low.  Even 
in  the  more  able  articles  there  is  a freedom  of  speech 
that  even  male  students  would  hardly  adopt.  For 
instance,  the  second  article  is  about  suffragists  in 
England.  The  writer  is  devoted  to  their  cause,  and 
heartily  approves  of  the  destruction  of  public  build- 
ings, property,  pillar  boxes,  etc.  In  addition  to  this, 
the  article  has  a decidedly  low  moral  tone.” 

In  a time  of  such  startlingly  rapid  changes,  it  is 
not  surprising  that  some  Chinese  women  have  been 
thrown  off  their  balance.  Such  a magazine  as  this 
is  an  expression  of  one  of  the  almost  inevitable 
results  of  a time  of  rapid  transition,  and  only  em- 
phasizes the  opportunity  in  literary  work  for  the 
right  kind  of  women.  One  Chinese  woman  editor  is 
already  leading  in  the  right  direction.  The  Women  s 
Magazine,  published  by  the  Chinese  Commercial 
Press,  and  ably  edited  by  Mrs.  Chu,  is  not  only  giving 
practical  and  much-needed  suggestion  to  young 
Chinese  women  along  the  lines  of  home  and  mother- 
craft,  but  is  also  steadying  them  by  the  sane,  fine 
ideals  which  stories  and  articles  are  keeping  before 
them.  Mrs.  Chu  will  not  leave  her  twenties  behind 
her  for  some  time  and  her  conduct  of  the  magazine 
is  as  understanding  of  the  bewildered  girl  of  new 
China  as  it  is  skillful. 


1 5o 


WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 


Japanese  women  Many  of  the  masterpieces  of  Japan’s 
writers.  ancient  literature  are  the  work  of 

women,  and  it  is  not  surprising  that  a number  of  the 
women  of  modern  Japan  are  giving  themselves  to 
writing.  Among  the  well-known  women  authors  of 
Japan  today  are  Madame  Atomi,  whose  writing  is 
chiefly  in  Chinese;  Saisho  Atsuka,  the  poet;  Madame 
Koganei,  Madame  Nakajima,  Madame  Yasano,  and 
Miss  Sanabe,  writers  of  novels;  and  Mrs.  Ozaki 
Yukio,  who  has  written  several  descriptions  of 
Japanese  life,  past  and  present,  in  English,  and  who 
has  had  books  published  in  America. 

In  practically  every  Oriental  country  there  is 
great  need  for  women  who  will  help  to  mold  new 
national  ideals,  and  point  clear,  straight  paths  to 
bewildered  girls  and  women  to  whom  new  ways  are 
opening,  as  difficult  and  danger-fraught  as  they  are 
fascinating  and  hope-filled.  The  task  of  the  writer 
or  editor  ought  surely  to  claim  many  an  Oriental 
woman. 


Women  physi-  The  rigid  rules  governing  harem  life 
dans  of  Moham-  have  made  it  so  difficult  for  Moham- 
medan women,  even  in  extreme  cases, 
to  receive  medical  attention  from  men,  that  the  idea 
that  women  should  know  something  of  medical  prac- 
tice has  not  been  an  altogether  unfamiliar  one  in 
Mohammedan  countries.  There  is  no  such  prejudice, 
therefore,  against  women  physicians,  as  the  women 
of  other  Oriental  countries  have  had  to  face.  In 
fact,  several  Turkish  women  have  for  a number  of 
years  been  performing  simple  medical  service  for 
women  and  girls.  Dr.  Patrick  tells  of  a holiday 
granted  the  School  of  Fine  Arts  for  Girls  several 


THE  TRAIL  MAKERS 


years  ago,  in  order  that  the  students  might  all  be 
vaccinated,  and  of  the  surprise  and  interest  of  a 
visitor  when  she  saw  that  the  doctor  sent  to  vaccinate 
the  girls  was  a Mohammedan  woman.  Dr.  Patrick 
also  counts  among  her  personal  acquaintances  a 
Mohammedan  woman  who  over  thirty  years  ago 
attended  a series  of  simple  medical  lectures  for 
women,  offered  by  one  of  the  men’s  medical  schools, 
and  who  has  ever  since  been  making  use  of  the 
knowledge,  elementary  though  it  is,  which  she  gained 
in  this  way.  “She  is  simple,  dignified,  and  efficient,” 
says  Dr.  Patrick,  “and  is  employed  by  at  least  one 
prominent  family,  who  always  trust  her  treatment 
except  in  case  of  dangerous  illness.”  No  woman  has 
been  permitted  to  practice  without  a diploma,  but 
no  great  amount  of  knowledge  has  been  necessary 
for  the  securing  of  a diploma. 

During  the  last  few  years  there  has  come,  however, 
a recognition  of  the  seriousness  of  having  no  thorough- 
ly trained  women  physicians  in  a country  where  the 
women  are  in  such  large  measure  shut  off  from  the 
help  of  men.  Daily  newspapers  and  magazines  have 
been  vigorously  urging  that  women  take  up  the 
study  of  medicine  in  earnest,  and  the  department  of 
medical  instruction  has  begun  to  make  efforts  to 
provide  thorough  training  for  them. 

Mohammedan  The  same  causes  which  led  untrained 
nurses.  Mohammedan  women  to  give  simple 

medical  help  to  other  women  have  led  them  to  serve 
as  nurses.  But  only  in  very  recent  years  has  it  been 
possible  for  Turkish  women  to  receive  any  training 
for  this  work.  During  the  Turco-Balkan  war,  Turkey 
was  brought  to  a keen  realization  of  her  need  for 


WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 


152 

trained  nurses.  There  were  no  Turkish  women  at  all 
who  were  prepared  to  give  the  physicians  the  skilled 
help  so  imperatively  needed.  First-aid  classes  were 
hurriedly  opened,  and  eagerly  attended  by  many 
women,  and  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the 
Ottoman  empire  Mohammedan  women  nursed  their 
countrymen.  They  could  not  do  what  trained 
nurses  could  have  done,  but  they  used  what  little 
training  they  had  with  a spirit  which  gave  great 
promise  of  what  nurses  they  would  make  if  the  way 
into  that  profession  were  opened  to  them. 

The  Red  Crescent  Society  of  Turkey,  which  cor- 
responds to  the  Red  Cross  Society,  and  to  which 
many  influential  Mohammedan  women  belong, 
established  classes  for  Mohammedan  nurses  at  the 
Kadirga  Hospital  in  Stamboul,  a few  years  ago,  and 
when  the  great  war  broke  had  plans  under  way  for 
building  a hospital  of  its  own,  with  a school  for 
women  nurses  attached  to  it.  This  plan,  too,  doubt- 
less awaits  the  end  of  the  war  for  fulfilment.  But 
can  there  be  room  for  doubt  that  the  conviction, 
born  in  the  Turco-Balkan  war,  that  Mohammedan 
lands  need  trained  nurses,  is  being  intensified,  a 
hundred  fold,  during  every  day  of  this  world  war? 
Surely,  the  professions  of  both  medicine  and  nursing, 
whose  doors  were  swinging  open  to  Mohammedan 
women  when  the  war  broke,  will  be  found  to  be 
flung  wide  when  the  struggle  is  over. 

The  need  of  In  India,  especially  in  the  Mohamme- 
women  physi-  dan  communities,  there  is  much  the 
aan«  in  India.  same  urgent  need  for  women  physi- 
cians as  in  the  countries  of  the  Near  East.  “The 
question  of  providing  means  for  bringing  medical 


Copyright  by  Underwood  and  Underwood,  N.  Y. 


THE  TRAIL  MAKERS 


*53 

relief  to  the  women  of  India  is  one  that  has  always 
been  present  to  the  mind  of  Englishmen,  and  especi- 
ally to  English  women  in  this  country,”  said  Sir 
Michael  O’Dwyer,  lieutenant-governor  of  the 
Punjab,  in  a recent  address,  and  went  on  to  point 
out  the  hospitals  for  women  which  had  been  es- 
tablished as  a result  of  the  sympathetic  efforts  of 
Lady  Dufferin,  Lady  Minto,  and  Lady  Hardinge. 
“But,”  he  continued,  “ultimate  success  lies  not  so 
much  in  the  building  of  hospitals,  as  in  training 
Indian  women  to  take  up  the  medical  profession,  or 
the  profession  of  nursing.”  For  several  years  the 
government  has  admitted  women  students  to  its 
medical  schools,  but,  as  Sir  Michael  frankly  con- 
fessed, very  few  women  have  availed  themselves 
of  such  a chance  for  medical  study.  “Our  efforts  to 
attract  female  students  to  Lahore  (the  University 
of  the  Punjab)  have  failed,”  he  said.  “We  offered 
them  accommodation,  we  offered  them  scholarships, 
and  the  possibility  of  a career.  Our  efforts  were  in 
vain,  mainly  owing  to  the  disinclination  of  the 
female  students  to  follow  the  same  lectures  and 
demonstrations  as  the  men.” 

There  is  real  difficulty  here.  The  medical  lectures 
are  given  by  men,  and,  as  the  custom  of  the  country 
decrees  that  the  girls  shall  not  speak  to  them,  many 
a difficulty  or  misunderstanding  must  go  unex- 
plained. Moreover,  Indian  parents  find  it  difficult 
enough  to  conceive  of  their  daughters  sitting  beside 
men  in  the  same  classroom  under  any  circumstances, 
but  that  they  should  attend  the  same  medical 
lectures  is  particularly  shocking  to  them.  The  small 
number  of  Indian  women  physicians  is  due,  not  so 


154  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

much  to  prejudice  against  this  profession  for  women, 
but  as  Lady  Hardinge  pointed  out  in  her  address, 
at  the  laying  of  the  foundation  stone  of  the  Union 
Medical  College  and  Hospital  at  Delhi,  to  the  ab- 
sence of  women’s  medical  colleges. 

Medical  schools  Missionary  societies  have  done  pioneer 
for  women.  work  in  a few  medical  schools  for 

women  and  it  is  a great  tribute  to  the  work  of  these 
institutions,  and  the  women  they  have  sent  out,  that 
the  government  is  now  officially  appointing  some  of 
them  to  provide  medical  training  for  the  women  of 
their  sections  of  the  country.  It  marked  an  epoch 
in  the  history  of  medical  work  for  women  when  in 
1914  the  government  of  the  Punjab  recognized  the 
Women’s  Christian  Medical  College  at  Ludhiana  as 
the  provincial  college  for  women  for  the  Punjab,  and 
made  it  an  annual  grant  of  Rs  34,000  (about $1 1,350). 

The  government  itself  is  also  establishing  medical 
colleges  for  women.  The  medical  school  at  Agra 
is  such  a one,  and  the  girls  who  come  there  are 
given  a thorough  training  at  government  expense. 
It  is  a striking  and  significant  fact  that  although  this 
is  not  a missionary  institution,  out  of  seventy-six 
students  in  1915,  seventy-jour  were  Christians.  And 
it  is  no  less  significant  that  of  that  seventy-four, 
sixty-four  were  girls  who  had  come  up  out  of  the  mass 
movement.  The  Lady  Hardinge  Medical  College, 
recently  opened  in  Delhi,  is  another  government 
institution  and  is  giving  the  girls  of  that  district 
opportunity  for  medical  training. 

„ . The  Indian  women  who  are  already 

Some  pioneers.  , . . . , . * , . 

doing  medical  work  have  set  a high 

standard  for  the  very  much  larger  number  who  ought 


THE  TRAIL  MAKERS  1 55 

soon  to  follow  them.  Dr.  Rukhnabai,  head  of  the 
Lady  Dufferin  Hospital  at  Surat,  Dr.  Nagubai  Joshi, 
Dr.  Kashibai  Nowrange,  Dr.  Piroja  Bahadurji, 
Dr.  Pheroza  Malabiri,  Dr.  Manekbhai  Tankariwala, 
Dr.  Karmarker  of  Bombay,  and  Dr.  Kheroth  Bose, 
who  is  working  under  the  Church  of  England  Zenana 
Society,  Dr.  Ethel  Maya  Das,  professor  in  the 
Ludhiana  Medical  College,  and  bacteriologist  of  the 
hospital  staff,  are  a few  of  the  women  of  India  who 
are  literally  meaning  life  to  their  countrymen.  Dr. 
Bose  was  recently  awarded  the  silver  Kaisar-i-Hind 
medal  in  recognition  of  the  splendid  service  she  is 
rendering. 

One  out  of  many  and  many  an  incident  which 
could  be  duplicated  in  the  life  of  any  mission  hospital 
any  day,  will  show  a little  of  how  such  women  as 
these  are  bringing  far  more  than  the  relief  of  physical 
pain  to  the  appealing  women  of  India.  Every  day, 
Mrs.  Datta  had  to  dress  a very  deep  and  painful 
wound  for  a little  Indian  lady,  and  every  day  when 
she  asked,  “Does  the  dressing  of  the  wound  hurt 
very  much  today?”  she  got  the  same  answer,  “No.” 
But  one  day,  after  the  usual  question  and  answer, 
Mrs.  Datta  exclaimed,  “What  a story-teller  you  are. 
I know  it  hurts  you.”  But  the  little  woman  looked 
up  through  the  tears  of  pain  which  she  could  not 
keep  back,  and  with  a voice  trembling  with  the 
strain  of  trying  to  suppress  the  groans,  answered, 
“No,  it  does  not  hurt  me.  I do  not  count  it  pain  at 
all.  I know  your  touch.  You  all  touch  me  with  the 
touch  of  love.  You  direct  your  probe  in  love.  All 
pain  ceases,  and  everything  is  sweetened  by  the 
touch  of  love.” 


I56  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

Many  of  the  medical  schools  and  hospitals  are 
offering  thorough  training  courses  for  nurses,  and 
there  is  the  same  need  for  nurses,  the  same  oppor- 
tunities before  them,  as  for  women  physicians.  And 
as  in  Turkey,  so  also  in  India,  the  great  war  is  forcing 
upon  India  the  realization  of  her  need  of  trained 
nurses.  The  war  had  scarcely  broken  out  before  even 
Hindu  and  Mohammedan  ladies  were  enrolling  in  the 
First  Aid  and  Home  Nursing  classes  which  Dr.  Joshi 
and  other  women  physicians  were  offering.  One  of 
the  indirect  results  of  India’s  participation  in  the 
war  can  scarcely  fail  to  be  an  increase  in  the  number 
of  her  women  who  will  go  into  medical  work  as  doctors 
or  nurses. 

Chinese  women  Enough  Chinese  women  have  already 
doctors.  made  not  merely  good,  but  remark- 

able, records  in  medicine  and  surgery  to  suggest  that 
the  women  of  China  have  a peculiar  aptitude  for 
such  work.  The  stories  of  the  work  of  Dr.  Hii  King 
Eng,  Dr.  Mary  Stone,  Dr.  Ida  Kahn,  Dr.  Li  Bi  Cu, 
Dr.  Li  Yuin  Tsao,  products  of  missions,  have  been 
told  many  times,  and  cannot  be  told  too  often.  And 
there  are  other  Chinese  women,  graduates  of  Dr. 
Fulton’s  medical  school  in  Canton,  or  of  the  Southern 
Methodist  school  in  Soochow,  a very  few  from  the 
younger  Union  Medical  College  of  Peking  and  a few, 
perhaps,  trained  not  in  a medical  school,  but  in  a 
hospital,  who  are  less  well-known  to  us  because  they 
have  not  been  in  America,  but  who  are  doing  superb 
work. 

These  three  women’s  medical  schools,  all  under 
missionary  auspices,  are,  so  far,  the  only  schools  in 
China  where  girls  can  receive  a thorough  training  in 


THE  TRAIL  MAKERS 


157 

modern  medical  science.  The  government  has  not 
yet  established  medical  schools  for  women,  and  there 
are  undoubtedly  many  other  lacks  which  the  Depart- 
ment of  Education  will  have  to  try  to  fill,  before  it 
can  attempt  anything  along  this  line.  Yet  the 
Chinese  government  wants  women  physicians.  When 
the  second  little  group  of  women  indemnity-fund 
students  sailed  for  the  United  States,  they  were 
told  that  if  any  of  them  enjoyed  scientific  work,  and 
were  inclined  toward  medical  training,  the  govern- 
ment would  be  pleased.  Four  of  these  ten  girls  are 
now  preparing  for  medical  work. 

How  great  is  the  need  for  women  physicians,  is 
indicated  by  almost  every  report  of  medical  mission- 
ary work  for  women.  “While  we  are  waiting  for  these 
girls  to  complete  their  course,”  reads  a recent  article 
on  the  Women’s  Union  Medical  College  of  Peking, 
“our  hospitals  at  Changli  and  Taienfu  are  closed  for 
lack  of  physicians,  and  two  others  are  inadequately 
staffed  or  equipped.”  The  hope  of  the  situation  lies 
not  in  the  handful  of  missionary  doctors  who  can  be 
sent  out,  important  as  they  are,  but  in  a large 
number  of  Chinese  women  who  will  give  themselves 
to  medical  work.  Mrs.  Bashford,  wife  of  Bishop 
Bashford  of  China,  writes:  “Some  have  thought  that 
men  must  take  charge  of  women’s  hospitals,  since  no 
missionary  society  can  find  even  the  limited  number 
of  women  physicians  it  is  able  to  send  to  the  foreign 
field.  But  here  are  Chinese  Christian  women  rising 
up  to  meet  the  need.”  The  fact  that  in  the  autumn  of 
1915,  the  enrollment  of  the  Women’s  Union  Medical 
College  jumped  from  eight  to  twenty-nine  serves  to 
show  how  glad  Chinese  girls  are  to  take  such  training 


I58  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

when  it  is  open  to  them.  The  number  would  have 
been  very  much  larger  had  the  entrance  require- 
ments not  been  so  splendidly  high,  and  will  un- 
doubtedly increase  rapidly  as  more  girls  are  prepared 
to  meet  these  requirements. 

The  nurses’  profession  is  sure  to 
attract  a growing  number  of  Chinese 
women.  Of  the  opening  of  the  training  school  for 
nurses  established  by  the  American  Board  in  Tochow, 
Mrs.  Roys  wrote:  “Changing  conditions  now  make 
possible  what  a few  years  ago  would  have  been  im- 
possible in  Shantung,  namely,  to  have  a woman  stay 
single  and  follow  a profession  without  losing  the 
respect  of  the  people.  Parents  who  a few  years  ago 
would  have  scorned  such  a proposal  are  now  asking 
to  have  their  daughters  join  this  first  class.” 

Japanese  women  The  number  of  Japanese  women 
physicians.  physicians  is  not  large.  A recent 

article  places  the  number  of  those  who  are  in  actual 
practice  as  below  three  hundred.  There  is  not 
quite  the  same  imperative  demand  for  them  as  in 
countries  where  the  women  have  been  so  much  more 
secluded  than  they  have  ever  been  in  Japan.  Yet 
there  is  a gradual  increase  in  the  numbers  of  women 
who  are  entering  this  work.  The  present  figures  are 
considerably  larger  than  those  of  1896,  when  only 
thirty  women  physicians  were  reported,  and  the 
number  of  Japanese  women  now  in  medical  schools 
suggests  that  medical  work  is  making  an  increasingly 
strong  appeal.  Such  women  as  Dr.  Yoshioka,  prac- 
ticing physician  and  head  of  the  women’s  medical 
school  of  Tokyo,  Dr.  Takahashi,  for  over  forty  years 
a well-known  figure  in  the  medical  world  of  Japan, 


THE  TRAIL  MAKERS 


Japanese  nurses. 


*59 

Dr.  Sono  Mayeda,  and  Dr.  Tomo  Inouye,  are  all 
doing  such  work  as  to  make  the  way  easier  for  all 
Japanese  women  who  follow  after  them. 

If  the  number  of  Japanese  women 
physicians  is  small,  the  number  of 
nurses  is  amazingly  large.  The  government  has 
established  nurses’  training  schools  in  almost  every 
prefecture,  and  it  is  estimated  that  there  are  three 
thousand  nurses  in  the  city  of  Tokyo  alone.  Japanese 
women  seem  peculiarly  fitted  for  the  work  of  nurses 
in  several  respects.  They  have  behind  them  cen- 
turies of  training  in  unquestioning  obedience  and 
absolute  self-control;  and  Japan’s  age-long  emphasis 
on  loyalty  and  fortitude  as  the  supreme  virtues  have 
bred  in  the  women,  quite  as  much  as  in  the  men, 
wonderful  courage  and  the  power  of  almost  limitless 
self-sacrifice.  Long  practice  in  self-control  keeps  the 
Japanese  nurse  cool  and  steady  in  times  of  crisis, 
and  the  samurai  code  of  her  ancestors  makes  her  do 
what  it  is  her  duty  to  do,  fearlessly  and  quietly,  no 
matter  what  the  danger  may  be.  She  has  proved  the 
stuff  she  is  made  of  in  times  of  cholera  epidemic  or 
plague;  in  the  unnoticed  everyday  tasks  and  in  the 
more  spectacular  service  of  wartime.  Several  com- 
panies of  Japanese  nurses  have  been  serving  under 
the  Red  Cross  in  Europe  almost  ever  since  the  great 
war  began,  and  have  more  than  earned  the  decora- 
tions given  them  by  the  French  and  English  govern- 
ments, and  the  military  honors  with  which  their  own 
government  has  welcomed  those  of  them  who  have 
returned  from  the  front.  And,  by  the  way,  that 
Oriental  women  should  be  accorded  military  honors 
by  an  Oriental  government  is  one  of  the  significant 
signs  of  these  thrilling  times. 


l6o  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

Although  Japanese  nurses  have  rendered  such 
splendid  service,  this  work  has  not  yet  attained  the 
dignity  in  Japan  which  it  has  in  Europe  and  America, 
and  is  still  too  often  thought  of  as  a trade  rather  than 
a profession.  Wages,  hours  of  work,  and  conditions 
of  life  leave  much  to  be  desired.  The  report  of  a 
recent  commission  reads:  “Probably  no  class  of 
young  women  needs  to  know  the  comfort  of  the 
Christian  life  more  than  nurses.  They  are  in  the  midst 
of  suffering  all  the  time,  and  the  hours  are  desperately 
long  and  strenuous.  They  receive,  for  the  most  part, 
low  wages,  and  when  they  leave  training  the  housing 
problem  when  off  duty  is  a serious  one.  Nurses’ 
unions  are  numerous,  but  are,  for  the  most  part, 
agencies  for  the  exploitation  of  the  nurses.  There  is 
need  for  some  Christian  agency  to  help  nurses,  not 
only  individually  as  occasion  and  opportunity  arise, 
but  to  provide  facilities,  social  and  physical,  which 
will  create  an  environment  in  which  spiritual  fruits 
will  have  a large  chance  to  take  root  and  grow.” 
Oriental  The  woman  lawyer  is  scarcely  known 

women  lawyers.  jn  the  Orient,  but  there  is  good  reason 
to  suppose  that  this  profession,  too,  will  offer  oppor- 
tunity for  self-support  and  service  to  educated 
Eastern  women  in  the  future.  Dr.  Patrick  says  of 
Mohammedan  women,  “There  are  as  yet  no  lawyers 
among  them,  but  for  very  many  years  it  has  been  the 
custom  for  them  sometimes  to  plead  their  own  cases 
in  the  courts  of  law,  having  first  studied  up  the  legal 
points  connected  with  them — and  a Constantinople 
lawyer  has  declared  that  they  often  do  this  with 
great  eloquence.”  The  brilliant  career  of  Miss 
Cornelia  Sorabji,  the  Christian  Parsee,  who  holds  the 


THE  TRAIL  MAKERS 


161 


post  of  legal  adviser  to  the  Bengal  government  for 
women  in  purdah  is  well-known;  and  two  other  wom- 
en of  India,  Miss  Regina  and  Miss  Hannah  Guha  of 
Calcutta,  have  recently  taken  degrees  in  law.  One 
of  the  first  requests  of  some  of  the  Chinese  women 
after  the  revolution  was  for  a law  school,  but  as  yet 
few,  if  any,  Chinese  or  Japanese  women  have  entered 
the  legal  profession. 

Social  and  New  purposes  and  new  opportunities 

religious  leaders.  are  opening  up  new  lines  of  work  for 
women.  Such  work  as  that  undertaken  a few  years 
ago  by  Manzara  Kaprielian,  a graduate  of  the 
Constantinople  College,  suggests  a way  along  which 
many  women  of  the  Near  East  will  soon  be  following. 
In  a village  of  Asia  Minor,  a day’s  wagon  journey 
from  a railroad,  with  perhaps  twenty  men  and  two 
women  among  its  thirty-five  hundred  inhabitants 
who  could  read,  this  young  college  graduate  made 
her  home.  At  first  that  home  was  one  little  room,  but 
her  vision  of  the  future  was  a little  settlement  cottage, 
with  reading  and  recreation  rooms,  a model  of  order 
and  cleanliness  for  all  who  saw  it.  “My  village  life 
and  this  small  new  world  of  work  have  been  full  of 
mercies,”  she  wrote.  “Our  nearest  villagers  are 
catching  the  new  disease  ‘cleanliness,’  and  begin  to 
wash  their  windows  and  houses.  I am  with  them  and 
among  them,  cleaning  up  houses,  washing  clothes, 
making  bread,  and  setting  up  threads  for  their  looms. 
I have  quite  a good  room  for  myself  with  a little  rent. 
Each  corner  has  its  special  use — a bedroom,  a sitting 
room,  a pantry,  and  a kitchen  with  a big  oven. 
Perhaps  the  Exhibition  at  St.  Louis  had  less  ad- 
mirers than  this  mysterious  room  of  mine,  which 


l6l  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

drew  the  admiration  of  all  the  village  women.  One 
said,  ‘You  have  gathered  the  flowers  of  seven  moun- 
tains in  your  room,’  others,  ‘Surely  God  will  be  found 
here,  it  is  so  clean,’  and  ‘How  will  you  leave  these 
things  when  you  die?’  ” 

The  great  social  worker  of  India  is  Ramabai,  the 
pioneer,  but  a number  of  other  women  are  giving 
their  entire  time  to  social  service  on  a smaller  scale. 
Some  are  in  charge  of  homes  for  widows  and  orphans, 
some  are  doing  what  practically  amounts  to  city 
settlement  work  under  the  auspices  of  the  Seva  Sadan 
and  similar  societies,  of  which  more  will  be  said  in  the 
next  chapter. 

An  example  of  what  Chinese  women  can,anddo,do 
in  such  occupations  as  these  is  given  by  modest  little 
Mrs.  Cheo  of  Nanking,  who  is,  says  Dr.  Robert  E. 
Speer,  “a  representative  of  this  large  and  growing 
company  who  are  rebuilding  the  new  China.  Three 
years  ago  when  the  southern  soldiers  were  returning 
after  the  revolution,  they  brought  with  them  to 
Nanking  hundreds  of  boys  and  girls  whom  they  were 
carrying  south  as  household  slaves.  The  children 
were  taken  from  them  in  Nanking  and  given  to  Mrs. 
Cheo.  For  a time  the  republic  supported  them  and 
then  discontinued  its  support,  until,  through  the 
appeal  of  friendly  missionaries  it  was  resumed.  Six 
hundred  orphans  are  cared  for  now  in  the  orphanage 
with  a discipline,  a management,  a practicalness  of 
education,  and  a tenderness  of  sympathy  such  as 
could  be  envied  in  any  other  land.  And  the  whole 
institution  and  its  wonderful  work  rest  on  a frail 
little  slip  of  a Chinese  woman  who  fears  no  man,  and 
loves  only  God  and  duty.” 


THE  TRAIL  MAKERS  1 63 

Ever  since  missionaries  have  been  in  the  East, 
Oriental  women  have  been  helping  to  carry  the  good 
news  of  the  gospel  to  other  women.  The  work  of  the 
loyal,  devoted  Bible  women  has  for  many  years  com- 
pelled our  admiration.  For  such  work  as  this. 
Oriental  women  will  always  be  needed  in  every  land. 
They,  better  than  anyone  else,  can  make  the  Story 
real  and  clear  to  the  groping,  wondering  minds  of 
their  own  countrywomen.  And,  as  more  and  more 
Oriental  girls  receive  education,  there  should  be  an 
ever-growing  number  of  Oriental  women  in  religious 
work  who  are  not  only  fervent  in  spirit,  but  well- 
equipped  mentally.  The  earnest  old  saint  who  has 
learned,  by  dint  of  herculean  effort,  to  pick  out 
slowly  the  words  of  the  Bible  story,  has  been  greatly 
used  of  God.  But  there  is  even  greater  service 
waiting  for  the  women  who,  with  equally  patient  and 
sympathetic  hearts,  and  quicker  and  more  finely 
trained  minds,  can  make  clear  paths  for  the  stumbling 
steps  of  burdened  women  and  the  eager  feet  of  little 
children,  straight  to  the  heart  of  God. 

They  are  not  many  in  number  yet,  the  women  of 
the  Orient  who  have  found  in  business  and  pro- 
fessional life,  the  way  of  self-support  and  service. 
Not  great  in  numbers  are  they,  but  very  great  in 
significance.  Over  the  new  paths  which  they  are  so 
quietly  but  so  effectively  blazing,  will  come  tomorrow 
a far  greater  company  than  they. 


164 


WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 


TWO  CHRISTIAN  SOCIAL  EXPERIMENTS 

It  is  well  to  remember  that  the  social  progress  of  the  women 
of  the  Orient  may  usually  be  traced  directly  or  indirectly  to 
Christian  missionaries  who  have  blazed  the  traii.  Think  of  the 
effect,  for  example,  of  the  work  of  such  women  as  Miss  Bullard 
in  India,  and  Miss  Bonnell  in  China. 

Suppose  you  looked  out  of  your  window  one  afternoon  and 
saw  the  vacant  space  across  the  street  filled  with  strange,  wild- 
looking folk  and  disconsolate  little  donkeys,  and  suppose  that 
when  you  asked  a nearby  policeman  about  them  he  answered, 
“Oh,  that’s  Gang  No.  V.  of  the  Erukalas.  They  are  thieves 
and  we  are  here  to  watch  them,  and  we  sleep  by  them  all  night  to 
see  that  they  don’t  go  off  committing  robbery.”  Suppose! 
Would  your  first  impulse  have  been  to  ask  them  all  to  come, 
bag  and  baggage,  fifty  donkeys  and  all,  and  stay  in  your  grounds, 
where  they  would  be  more  comfortable?  And  when  you  had 
gathered  them  all  there,  would  you  have  gone  to  the  district 
superintendent  of  police  and  asked  him  to  give  you  ail  those 
people  to  look  after,  instead  of  sending  them  to  the  mica  mines? 
And  when  he  said,  yes,  he  would,  provided  you  would  take  not 
only  this  group,  but  the  whole  tribe,  which  numbered  about  two 
hundred  families,  what  would  you  have  said?  What  Miss  Bullard 
a dauntless  little  missionary  in  India  said  was,  “All  this  seems  so 
like  the  working  of  God’s  plan  for  the  saving  of  these  poor, 
down-trodden,  wicked  men  that  we  cannot  refuse.”  So  she  set 
them  to  clearing  a piece  of  ground  which  was  overgrown  with 
cactus,  not  because  they  were  good  and  efficient  workmen,  but 
because  they  must  be  taught  to  work.  Meanwhile  word  was 
sent  out  to  other  members  of  the  “Red  Thieves’  Tribe,”  that 
any  who  cared  to  come  would  be  very  welcome  on  the  mission 
compound.  And  the  invitation  was  promptly  accepted.  Men, 
women,  children,  cattle,  sheep,  goats,  dogs,  cats,  came  pouring 
in. 

“How  can  one  describe  these  w'ld-looking  creatures?”  Miss 
Bullard  wrote.  “Many  of  the  men  have  hard  faces  showing  that 
crime  is  not  a new  thing  to  them.  Others  again  have  bright 
faces  and  it  is  hard  to  believe  that  they  have  ever  done  such 
wicked  things.  The  women  are  so  uncivilized  that  they  are 


THE  TRAIL  MAKERS  1 65 

dirty  and  unkempt  in  the  extreme.  . . . The  children  are  bright 
little  things,  as  scared  as  little  rabbits  at  first.  . , . Dirt  and 


noise  seem  to  be  the  words  that  best  describe  the  Erukalas.” 

But  if  you  were  to  visit  this  colony  of  “Red  Thieves”  today, 
you  would  not  recognize  them  from  this  description.  Not  at  all! 
Out  in  the  fields  or  at  the  looms,  you  would  see  men  as  busy  at 
honest  work  as  if  they  had  never  thought  of  being  thieves.  And 
you  would  never  dream  that  the  women,  who  are  so  diligently 
performing  the  household  tasks  of  their  neat  little  homes,  were 
once  “dirty  and  unkempt  in  the  extreme.”  And  as  for  the  chil- 
dren! The  decorous  little  maidens  in  the  girls’  school  and  the 
bright-eyed  little  fellows  in  the  boys’,  bear  scant  resemblance  to 
the  “scared  little  rabbits”  who  ran  whenever  anyone  looked  at 
them  not  so  very  long  ago.  The  entire  colony  regularly  and  eager- 
ly attend  church  and  Sunday  school  on  Sundays,  and  morning 
prayers  every  day,  and  many  have  asked  to  be  admitted  to  the 
church.  Such  are  the  “Red  Thieves”  today. 

Let’s  suppose  again,  for  a minute.  Suppose  that  you  had 
applied  to  your  mission  board  to  be  sent  to  China.  And  suppose 
that  no  doctor  would  give  you  a medical  certificate;  and  that 
after  you  had  met  your  Board  and  tried  to  persuade  them  that 
you  were  able  to  go  no  matter  what  the  doctors  said,  you  had  a 
serious  illness  which  made  everybody  say,  “ There — you  see!” 
Suppose!  What  would  you  have  done?  This  is  the  story  of 
what  Cornelia  Bonnell,  Vassar,  ’97,  did.  She  secured  a position 
in  a private  school  for  the  children  of  foreign  residents  in  Shang- 
hai. And  while  she  was  teaching  little  Americans  and  Britishers, 
she  learned  the  ways  of  the  city  she  lived  in,  and  learned  the 
lives  of  some  of  its  girls.  Into  Shanghai’s  “City  of  Dreadful 
Night”  she  went,  where  little  girls  are  bought  and  sold,  where 
heavy  coats  of  gaudy  paint  cannot  hide  the  horror  and  anguish 
of  young  girl  faces,  where  hundreds  upon  hundreds  of  girls  and 
children  are  lost  every  year  in  the  horrible  whirlpool  of  vice. 
For  two  years  Cornelia  Bonnell  taught,  then,  at  twenty-five  years 
of  age,  she  resigned  her  position  and  with  dauntless  disregard 
of  the  fact  that  she  had  no  Board  behind  her  to  support  her  in 
her  purpose  to  do  what  no  one  else  had  ever  thought  it  possible 
to  attempt,  she  went  into  the  very  heart  of  the  “City  of  Dreadful 
Night.”  In  November,  1901,  the  “Door  of  Hope”  opened,  and 


WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 


1 66 

for  sixteen  years  Cornelia  Bonnell  rescued  and  cared  for  hun- 
dreds of  girls  and  children  who  had  been  unwillingly  sold  or 
rented  into  a life  of  shame. 

This  is  the  work  of  the  Door  of  Hope,  as  Mrs.  Henry  W.  Pea- 
body saw  it  three  years  ago.  “Out  in  the  sunny  suburb  we  were 
taken  to  the  Industrial  Home,  established  by  Miss  Bonnell, 
Angel-of-Lost-Girls.  She  was  not  there,  but  Miss  Morris  and 
other  workers  greeted  us,  and  took  us  through  the  rooms  where 
hundreds  of  girls  were  at  work.  Some  were  doing  dainty  em- 
broidery, exquisite  baby  dresses,  trousseaux  for  brides,  lingerie. 
Some  were  dressing  fascinating  Chinese  dolls,  carved  skilfully 
from  wood,  representing  various  classes. 

“ ‘I  wish  you  could  be  here  for  the  Bible  lesson,’  Miss  Morris 
said.  ‘It  is  wonderful  to  see  how  quick  they  are.’ 

“ ‘But  are  they  happy?’  I asked. 

“ ‘Yes,  even  happy.  We  do  not  speak  to  them  of  the  past  or 
allow  them  to  refer  to  the  old  life.  It  is  literally  blotted  out  as 
they  enter  here,  and  in  a short  time  the  worst  of  it  seems  to  be 
forgotten.’ 

“One  girl  in  the  Bible  class  was  studying  John  14.  I asked  her 
what  she  thought  heaven  was  like.  Her  face  beamed  as  she  said, 
‘It  seems  to  me  it  must  be  like  a great  big  Door  of  Hope.’ 

“There  were  little  children  in  another  home  farther  out  in 
the  country,  a real  home  under  the  trees  where  rescued  children 
under  ten  years  of  age  are  taken  and  are  helped  in  play  and  work 
to  forget.  ‘Who  supports  it  all?’  I asked.  ‘Miss  Bonnell,  who 
started  the  work.  She  has  done  it  all.  She  began  with  a little 
group  of  five  praying  women  in  Shanghai  in  1900.  She  worked 
out  the  plan,  organized  a committee,  has  literally  prayed  these 
buildings  into  being,  for  there  is  no  Board  back  of  us.  God  has 
sent  help  as  it  was  needed,  as  God  sent  the  woman  who  was 
needed  for  this  terrible  task.’  ” 

In  1916,  Cornelia  Bonnell’s  frail  body  was  no  longer  able  to 
endure  the  strain  she  had  put  upon  it;  but  her  work  goes  on. 
Other  missionaries  are  keeping  the  Door  of  Hope  flung  wide  to 
every  suffering  Chinese  girl  who  needs  the  shelter  and  the  care 
that  lie  beyond  it;  and  strong-faced,  sympathetic  Chinese 
workers  are  leading  hundreds  of  tired-eyed  girls  back  to  life  and 
joy  and  usefulness.  Suppose  Cornelia  Bonnell  had  been  content 
to  be  an  invalid.  Suppose! 


THE  TRAIL  MAKERS 


167 

QUESTIONS  ON  CHAPTER  IV. 

Aim  of  study:  To  realize  the  ability  of  the  Oriental  women 
who  have  had  opportunities  for  education;  and  to  know  some- 
thing of  the  occupations  and  lines  of  service  open  to  them. 

1.  What  changes  do  you  think  the  war  will  bring  in  the 
lives  of  the  women  of  the  world  in  general? 

2.  How  do  you  think  it  will  affect  the  lives  of  the  women  of 
Oriental  countries  in  particular? 

3.  What  profession  has,  up  to  this  time,  claimed  the  largest 
number  of  Oriental  women? 

4.  What  profession  seems  to  you  to  offer  the  largest  oppor- 
tunity for  service  to  an  Oriental  woman?  Why? 

5.  How  do  you  explain  the  fact  that  there  are  so  large  a 
number  of  business  women  in  Japan,  and  so  few  in  any  other 
Oriental  country? 

6.  What  seems  to  you  the  greatest  single  obstacle  to  the 
spread  of  woman’s  education  in  the  Orient  today? 

7.  In  what  ways  can  the  women  of  America  help  to  remove 
this  obstacle? 

8.  If  an  able  girl  of  the  Near  East,  with  an  aptitude  for 
scientific  study,  asked  your  advice  as  to  whether  she  should 
prepare  herself  to  be  a physician  or  a teacher  of  science,  what 
would  you  say  to  her?  Why? 

9.  What  will  be  some  of  the  chief  problems  solved  if  the 
widows  of  India  can  be  released  for  service? 

10.  If  you  were  supporting  a Chinese  woman  worker,  would 
you  choose  a teacher,  a writer,  a physician,  a nurse,  a social 
worker,  or  a Bible  woman?  Why? 

11.  If  you  were  an  unmarried  woman  of  Japan,  what  line 
of  work  would  you  choose  to  enter?  Why? 

12.  In  what  ways  does  it  seem  to  you  that  the  women  of 
America  can  guide  and  help  the  women  of  the  Orient  in  these 
transition  days  of  the  setting  of  standards  and  forming  of  ideals 
in  the  new  business  and  professional  life  of  women? 


CHAPTER  V. 


Suggested  Scripture  Reading: 

The  Unity  of  the  Spirit.  Ephesians  4:1-7. 

Women  Working  Together. 

Moslem  Women: 

In  patriotic  service; 

In  social  service. 

The  Women  of  India: 

Working  for  their  country; 

Coming  together  to  work  for  the  women  of  their  country. 

The  Women  of  China: 

Their  share  in  the  revolution; 

Their  organizations  for  the  service  of  others. 

The  Women  of  Japan: 

Their  patriotism; 

Their  united  work  for  the  needy  of  Japan. 


CHAPTER  V. 


WOMEN  WORKING  TOGETHER 


“Yet  must  I go  where  the  loud  world  beckons 
And  the  urgent  drum  beat  of  destiny  calls, 

Far  from  your  white  domes’  luminous  slumber. 

Far  from  the  dream  of  your  fortress  walls. 

“Into  the  strife  of  the  throng  and  tumult. 

The  war  of  sweet  Love  against  folly  and  wrong. 

Where  brave  hearts  carry  the  sword  of  battle, 

’Tis  mine  to  carry  the  banner  of  song. 

“The  solace  of  faith  to  the  lips  that  falter, 

The  succour  of  hope  to  the  hands  that  fail. 

The  tidings  of  joy  when  Peace  shall  triumph. 

When  truth  shall  conquer  and  Love  prevail.” 

Not  for  herself  alone,  but  for  many  and  many  a 
woman  of  the  Orient  today  does  one  of  India’s  poet- 
daughters  speak  in  this  song  of  consecration  to  a 
splendid  quest.  Summoned  by  “the  urgent  drum- 
beat” of  a new  and  vivid  day,  they  are  coming  out 
from  the  “luminous  slumber”  of  the  harem,  from  the 
fortress  walls  of  century-old  custom,  to  an  ardent  and 
gallant  adventuring  along  unknown  and  often  rugged 
ways.  They,  who  have  lived  their  lives  apart,  whom 
walls  of  custom,  of  prejudice,  of  suspicion,  have 
separated  even  from  each  other,  are  joining  hand  in 
hand  today,  to  wage  together  “the  war  of  sweet 
love.”  Love  of  country,  love  of  humanity,  love  of 
God;  these  are  the  living  fires  which  have  burned 


170  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

away  innumerable  ancient  barriers  of  division  and 
joined  women  together  in  the  glowing  purpose  to 
serve. 

Patriotism  in  The  patriotism  of  some  of  the  women 
Persia.  of  Orient  has  never  been  excelled. 

“The  women  teach  us  how  to  love  our  land,”  the 
men  of  the  National  Assembly  of  Persia  are  reported 
to  have  said,  when  the  treasured  jewels  of  women 
were  sent  to  them  with  the  message,  “We  are  women 
and  cannot  fight,  but  we  give  to  our  country.”  And 
Mr.  Morgan  Shuster,  the  Treasurer-General  of  Persia 
during  the  revolution  of  1911,  said,  “Without  the 
powerful  moral  influence  of  the  Persian  women,  the 
so-called  chattels  of  the  Oriental  lords  of  creation,  the 
short-lived,  but  marvellously  conducted  revolution- 
ary movement  in  Persia  would  have  paled  early 
into  a mere  disorganized  protest.” 

It  is  a dramatic  picture  that  Mr.  Shuster  paints  of 
women’s  part  during  that  darkest  hour  of  the 
revolution  when  Russia  had  issued  her  ultimatum, 
the  acceptance  of  which  meant  Persia’s  complete 
abdication  of  her  sovereignty.  The  National  As- 
sembly voted  unanimously  to  reject  the  ultimatum, 
but  there  were  neither  men  nor  funds  with  which  to 
resist,  and  the  Cabinet,  panic  stricken,  brought 
pressure  to  bear  upon  the  National  Assembly  in  an 
effort  to  persuade  them  to  change  their  decision. 
Then  it  was,  says  Mr.  Shuster,  that  out  from  the 
walled  court  yards  and  harems,  there  marched  three 
hundred  veiled  women.  “They  were  clad  in  plain 
black  robes,  with  the  white  net  of  their  veils  dropped 
over  their  faces.  Many  held  pistols  under  their  skirts 
or  in  the  folds  of  their  sleeves.  Straight  to  the 


WOMEN  WORKING  TOGETHER  I7I 

Assembly  they  went  and,  gathered  there,  demanded 
of  the  president  that  he  admit  them  all.  The  presi- 
dent consented  to  receive  a delegation  of  them.  In 
his  reception  hall  they  confronted  him,  and,  lest  he 
and  his  colleagues  should  doubt  their  meaning,  these 
cloistered  Persian  mothers,  wives,  and  daughters 
tore  aside  their  veils,  and  confessed  their  decision  to 
kill  their  own  husbands  and  sons  and  add  their  own 
bodies  to  the  sacrifice,  if  the  deputies  should  waver 
in  their  duty  to  uphold  the  liberty  and  dignity  of  the 
Persian  people  and  nation.  A few  days  later  the 
Assembly  was  destroyed  by  a coup  d'etat  executed  by 
Russian  hirelings,  but  its  members  were  stainless 
of  having  sold  their  country’s  birthright.” 

The  mosques  were  crowded  with  Persian  women 
during  the  days  of  the  revolution,  and  in  the  sections 
reserved  for  women  many  of  them  read  burning 
patriotic  addresses,  exhorting  their  countrywomen 
to  stand  firm  in  loyalty  to  the  dream  of  Persian  in- 
dependence. “And,”  says  a missionary  who  was  in 
Teheran  during  those  months,  “the  men,  listening 
from  a distance,  would  send  someone  to  borrow  the 
addresses  and  read  them  in  loud  tones  for  the  benefit 
of  the  men  present.” 

It  is  well  known,  Mr.  Shuster  says,  that  there  are 
dozens  of  more  or  less  secret  political  societies  among 
the  Persian  women,  with  a central  organization  by 
which  they  are  controlled,  and  in  his  story  of  his 
experiences  in  Persia  he  tells  of  various  ways  in 
which  he  felt  the  influence  of  these  societies. 

The  short-lived  revolution  over,  Persian  women 
did  not  go  back  to  sit  in  their  harems  in  discouraged 
idleness.  Many  of  them  suffered  severely  in  the  days 


172  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

of  reaction  which  followed  the  first  brief  triumph  of 
reform.  Personal  privation,  loss  of  property,  the 
murder  of  dear  ones;  all  these  they  knew.  Some  were 
driven  from  their  homes  in  the  darkness  of  night, 
and  forced  to  flee,  half  clothed,  to  places  of  safety. 
But,  said  a missionary,  “Little  repining  has  been 
heard;  they  are  setting  their  faces  to  the  future,  and 
adapting  themselves  to  changed  conditions.”  There 
was  still  work  to  do.  Their  missionary  friend  goes  on 
to  write:  “The  women  of  this  city  (Teheran)  have 
made  astonishing  progress,  considering  their  lack  of 
education  and  the  ordinary  privileges  of  women  in 
Christian  countries.  Still  behind  the  veil,  still  re- 
stricted by  religious  law,  still  considered  man’s  in- 
ferior, they  have  this  last  year  established  over  a 
hundred  schools  for  girls,  attended,  as  the  inspector 
of  schools  informs  us,  by  some  hundreds  of  pupils!” 
Turkish  women’s  “Turkish  women,  too,”  says  one  of 
work  for  their  the  professors  in  the  Constantinople 
country.  College,  “have  shown  heroism,  self- 

sacrifice,  love  of  liberty  and  of  humanity,  intelligence 
in  service,  and  a lofty  quality  of  devotion  to  an  ab- 
stract cause.”  When  the  Young  Turk  Party  was 
organized,  women  were  the  messengers  who  carried 
dangerous  messages  and  secret  papers  from  one 
harem  to  another,  for  a Mohammedan  woman  may 
never  be  searched.  Women,  who  had  received  enough 
education  to  make  it  possible,  helped  to  rouse  other 
women  to  intelligent  patriotism  by  writing. 

The  patriotism  o;  Turkish  women  has  shown  itself 
in  very  practical  ways.  When  the  Turkish  army  was 
moving  on  Adrianople  the  second  time,  a group  of 
Turkish  women  raised  an  amazing  amount  of  money 


WOMEN  WORKING  TOGETHER  1 73 

for  the  campaign,  by  bringing  ten  thousand  women 
together  in  two  great  mass  meetings,  and  presenting 
the  need  of  funds  to  them. 

Women’s organi-  In  Turkey,  too,  since  the  revolution, 
zations m Turkey,  women  have  been  organizing.  In 
Stamboul  is  the  Taarli-Nissvan,  or  the  “Society  for 
the  Elevation  of  those  who  are  Veiled.”  The  mem- 
bers of  this  society  are  studying  English  under  the 
guidance  of  a teacher,  and  hope  to  translate  into 
Turkish  many  English  books  of  the  kind  that  will  be 
interesting  and  helpful  to  Turkish  women. 

In  Constantinople  the  women  are  organized  in  the 
Nludafa-a-y-Houkouki  Nissvan , the  Society  for  the 
Defense  of  the  Rights  of  Women.  This  society  aims 
to  accomplish  large  things  for  the  women  of  Turkey, 
and  is  seeking: 

“1.  To  transform  the  outdoor  costume  of  Turkish 
women. 

“2.  To  ameliorate  the  rules  of  marriage  according 
to  the  exigencies  of  common  sense. 

“3.  To  fortify  woman  in  the  home. 

“4.  To  render  mothers  capable  cf  bringing  up  their 
children  according  to  the  principles  of  modern 
pedagogy 

“5.  To  initiate  Turkish  women  into  life  in  society. 

“6.  To  encourage  women  to  earn  their  own  living 
by  their  own  work,  and  to  find  them  work  in  order  to 
remedy  the  present  evils. 

“7.  To  open  women’s  schools  in  order  to  give  to 
young  Turkish  girls  an  education  suited  to  the  needs 
of  their  country;  and  to  improve  those  schools  already 
existing.” 

The  illustrated  weekly  paper  for  women,  edited  by 


174  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

Ulviye  Hanoum,  the  columns  of  which  are  open  to 
any  woman  writer  who  cares  to  contribute,  is  issued 
under  the  auspices  of  this  society.  And,  says  an 
English  visitor  to  Turkey,  “If  every  Turkish  word 
were  badly  spelled,  and  every  phrase  badly  con- 
structed, and  every  article  poor,  I should  still  rejoice 
in  the  publication  of  Kadinler-Dunyassi  because  it 
is  a co-operative  effort.  Co-operative  effort  alone  can 
save  Turkey.” 

In  the  Society  of  the  Red  Crescent,  also,  under  the 
leadership  of  Princess  Nimet,  Turkish  women  have 
worked  together,  rendering  splendid  service  among 
the  wounded  and  refugees  in  wartime;  and  building 
hospitals  and  promoting  the  training  of  nurses  in 
times  of  peace. 

The  loyalty  of  Expressive  of  the  passionate  devotion 

India’s  women.  to  her  country  of  the  woman  of  India 
today  is  Sarojini  Naidu’s  foreword  to  her  new  book, 
The  Broken  Wing. — “In  the  radiant  and  far-off 
yesterdays  of  our  history,  it  was  the  sacred  duty  of 
Indian  womanhood  to  kindle  and  sustain  the  hearth- 
fires,  the  beacon-fires,  and  the  altar-fires  of  the 
nation.  The  Indian  woman  of  today  is  once  more 
awake  and  profoundly  alive  to  her  splendid  destiny 
as  the  guardian  and  interpreter  of  the  Triune  Vision 
of  national  life — the  Vision  of  Love,  the  Vision  of 
Faith,  and  the  Vision  of  Patriotism.  Her  renascent 
consciousness  is  everywhere  striving  for  earnest  ex- 
pression in  song  or  speech,  service  or  self-sacrifice, 
that  shall  prove  an  offering  not  unworthy  of  the 
Great  Mother  in  the  eyes  of  the  world  that  honor  her. 
Poignantly  aware  of  the  poverty  of  my  gift,  I still 
venture  to  make  my  offering  with  joined  palms  up- 
lifted, in  a salutation  of  song.” 


WOMEN  WORKING  TOGETHER  I75 

Loyalty  to  the  “Great  Mother”  is  leading  many  a 
woman  of  India  to  keep  in  touch  with  every  effort 
made  to  raise  the  level  of  her  country’s  life,  and  to 
give  her  earnest  support  to  such  efforts  in  every  way 
she  can.  When  a bill  in  which  she  believes  is  pre- 
sented, she  cannot,  it  is  true,  help  its  passage  by  her 
vote;  but  she  can  and  does  express  herself  in  favor  of 
it.  Such  newspaper  notices  as  these  are  no  rarity  in 
India  today: 

“Under  the  auspices  of  the  Hindu  Social  Reform 
League  a largely  attended  meeting  was  held  in 
Anderson  Hall,  to  signify  approval  of  the  principles 
of  Mr.  Dadabhai’s  Bill  for  the  protection  of  minor 
girls.  ...  A Hindu  lady  supported  the  resolution 
in  an  eloquent  speech  in  Tamil.” 

“In  connection  with  the  Ladies’  Meeting  held  in 
the  South  India  Brahmo  Somaj  on  Saturday,  Mrs. 
Chidambramnial,  Mrs.  Chetty,  and  others  discussed 
the  Civil  Marriage  Bill  introduced  into  the  Imperial 
Legislative  Council  and  resolved  to  adopt  a memorial 
to  be  sent  to  the  Madras  government  with  a request 
that  Mr.  Basu’s  bill  be  brought  into  law.” 

“Mrs.  Ranade’s  eloquent  and  impressive  speech 
at  the  great  meeting  held  in  Bombay  in  support  of 
Mr.  Basu’s  Civil  Marriage  bill  will  be  long  remem- 
bered by  those  who  heard  it.” 

Measures  and  actions  which  are  a blot  on  India’s 
fair  name  are  instantly  condemned  by  Indian  women. 
After  the  attack  upon  Lord  Hardinge  in  Delhi  in 
1913,  Indian  women  in  all  parts  of  the  country  met 
to  pass  resolutions  “embodying  their  horror  at  the 
attempt  on  the  life  of  His  Excellency,  the  Viceroy, 
and  their  high  appreciation  of  the  serene  and  un- 


I76  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

faltering  courage  manifested  by  Her  Excellency, 
Lady  Hardinge.”  Even  the  most  secluded  pur- 
danashins  of  Bombay,  who  were  reluctant  to  attend 
the  meeting  of  women  held  in  the  Town  Hall,  had  a 
meeting  of  their  own  in  the  palace  of  Her  Highness, 
Lady  Alishah.  “It  was  a sight  never  to  be  forgotten,” 
says  Lady  Sydenham.  “The  gardens  round  a foun- 
tain were  filled  to  overflowing.  The  porch,  doorway, 
hall,  landings,  staircase,  and  huge  rooms  were 
crowded,  and  Her  Highness  sat  on  a small  platform 
with  a table  in  front  of  her  piled  with  annas,  the 
offerings  of  the  thousands  of  women  who  came  at  her 
bidding  to  prove  their  sympathy.  . . . There  were 
over  five  thousand  present.” 

The  municipal  franchise  was  granted  to  women 
property  owners  of  the  Bombay  Presidency  some 
years  ago,  and  as  it  enables  them  to  have  a share  in 
the  election  of  members  of  the  Legislative  Council, 
they  have  an  indirect  influence  in  affairs  of  the 
Presidency.  A few  women  have  been  candidates  for 
office  in  India.  Mrs.  Mohanlal  Nehru  of  Allahabad 
was  reported  a candidate  for  the  Civil  Station  Ward 
a few  years  ago;  and  Mrs.  Hemlala  Sarkar,  a Hindu 
lady,  has  been  one  of  the  commissioners  of  the 
municipality  of  Darjeeling.  It  is  reported  that  when 
she  became  a member,  the  Board  began  to  give  in- 
creased attention  to  the  sanitation  of  the  city.  After 
all,  even  in  India,  men  cannot  be  expected  to  be  as 
good  housekeepers  as  women! 

India’s  women  The  loyalty  of  India’s  women  has 

and  the  war.  never  been  more  convincingly  or 

beautifully  demonstrated  than  since  the  outbreak  of 
the  great  war.  Early  in  the  war  they  came  together 


WOMEN  WORKING  TOGETHER  1 77 

in  cities  great  and  small  to  express  their  loyalty  and 
offer  their  services.  “To  those  who  know  the  women 
of  India,”  reads  an  article  in  an  English  newspaper, 
“and  the  scant  interest  that  they  have  hitherto 
manifested  in  the  affairs  of  the  world  wider  than 
their  own  secluded  circle,  the  practical  efforts  that 
they  have  made  on  behalf  of  Red  Cross  labors,  and 
the  sending  of  comforts  to  the  troops  are  among  the 
most  remarkable  of  the  unexpected  results  of  the 

yy 

war. 

In  the  great  cities,  Hindu,  Mohammedan,  Parsee, 
and  Christian  women  are  working  together  to  send 
comfort  bags,  clothing,  bandages,  food  supplies,  and 
money  to  the  front.  The  women  of  Bombay  alone 
sent  forty-nine  thousand  articles  to  the  St.  John’s 
Ambulance  Association  during  the  first  six  months 
of  the  war.  From  towns  in  the  interior  come  stories 
of  the  first  meetings  of  women  ever  held  for  any 
purpose  whatsoever,  meetings  at  which  women 
“spoke  with  fervor  of  the  happiness  and  prosperity 
they  enjoyed  under  British  rule”  and  pledged  their 
services  and  gifts  to  relief  work. 

Their  loyal  ty,  their  gifts,  their  efforts,  their  prayers; 
the  women  of  India  are  giving  all  these,  and  more 
than  these.  They  have  not  withheld  the  greatest 
gift.  And  all  that  they  have  given,  they  have  offered 
with  a spirit  which  could  be  expressed  only  by  one 
of  themselves.  To  the  gifts  of  the  Ladies’  Relief 
Association  of  Hyderabad,  Sarojini  Naidu  added 
“a  salutation  of  song”: 

“Is  there  aught  you  need  that  my  hands  withhold? 

Rich  gifts  of  raiment,  or  grain,  or  gold? 

Lo,  I have  flung  to  the  East  and  West 


178  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

Priceless  treasures  torn  from  my  breast, 

And  yielded  the  sons  of  my  stricken  womb, 

To  the  drumbeats  of  duty,  the  sabres  of  doom. 

“Gathered  like  pearls  in  their  alien  graves, 

Silent  they  sleep  by  the  Persian  waves. 

Scattered  like  shells  on  Egyptian  sands 

They  lie  with  pale  brows,  and  brave,  broken  hands, 

They  are  scattered  like  blossoms  mown  down  by  chance. 
On  the  blood-brown  meadows  of  Flanders  and  France. 

"Can  ye  measure  the  grief  of  the  tears  I weep, 

Or  compass  the  woe  of  the  watch  I keep, 

Or  the  pride  that  thrills  through  my  heart’s  despair. 

Or  the  hope  that  comforts  the  anguish  of  prayer. 

Or  the  far,  sad,  glorious  vision  I see 
Of  the  torn,  red  banners  of  victory! 

“When  the  terror  and  tumult  of  war  shall  cease, 

And  life  be  refashioned  on  anvils  of  peace, 

And  your  love  shall  offer  memorial  thanks 

To  the  comrades  who  fought  in  your  dauntless  ranks. 

And  you  honor  the  deeds  of  the  deathless  ones, 

Remember  the  blood  of  my  martyred  sons.” 

Working  together  In  the  “Survey  for  the  Year”  of  the 
in  India.  International  Review  of  Missions  for 

January,  1917,  the  editor  has  given  prominent  place 
to  the  following  little  paragraph,  “An  experienced 
missionary  correspondent,  who  has  returned  to 
India  after  a long  absence,  notes  as  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  changes  the  rapid  spread  of  clubs  and 
societies  of  all  kinds  among  the  women  of  the  edu- 
cated classes,  and  of  women’s  meetings  presided  over 
and  addressed  by  women.” 

More  significant  than  anything  that  men  are 
doing  to  promote  the  cause  of  education  and  progress 


WOMEN  WORKING  TOGETHER  I79 

among  the  women  of  India,  is  the  way  in  which  the 
women  themselves  are  coming  together  that  the 
girls  of  today  may  find  the  way  to  a life  unknown  to 
the  women  of  yesterday.  Well  might  the  Times  of 
India  designate  as  “unique  in  the  world  of  Islam,” 
that  conference  of  leading  Mohammedan  women  of 
west  India  held  in  Poona  in  the  spring  of  1913,  when 
these  Mohammedan  ladies  not  only  passed  resolu- 
tions supporting  the  government  proposal  to  estab- 
lish a central  school  for  Moslem  girls  in  Poona,  and 
urging  that  such  schools  be  provided  in  every  district, 
but  also  established  a fund  to  send  Mohammedan 
women  to  less  progressive  parts  of  the  country  to 
help  to  advance  the  cause  of  women’s  education. 

Hindu  women,  too,  are  coming  together  in  con- 
ference, facing  knotty  problems,  thinking  their  way 
through  them,  sending  memorials  to  government 
officials.  It  may  be  a small,  but  it  is  certainly  a very 
shining  ray  of  hope  for  the  future  that  is  cast  when  a 
society  of  the  women  of  south  India  memorializes  the 
governor  of  Madras  to  the  effect  that  “a  great 
change  has  come  over  the  minds  of  the  people  in  the 
Telugu  country,  in  their  attitude  towards  the  long- 
neglected  problem  of  women’s  education.  The  pres- 
ent complaint  is  not  that  there  are  not  willing 
parents  who  would  permit  their  grown-up  daughters 
to  attend  schools,  but  that  there  are  not  schools 
enough  readily  accessible  and  in  all  respects  al- 
together unobjectionable,  to  which  girls  may  be  sent 
for  a secondary  education.  . . . The  time  has  come 
for  establishing  high  schools,  one  for  each  district.” 

There  are  few  aspects  of  women’s  life  which  the 
women  of  India  are  not  together  considering  today. 


l80  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

Fifty  years  or  so  ago  a well-known  Gujerati  poet 
pictured  the  lot  of  Gujerat’s  women  as  worse  than 
that  of  slaves.  Which  city  of  India,  he  asked,  would 
produce  a Hindu  woman  who  was  capable  of  speak- 
ing to  her  sisters  to  their  advantage?  But  it  was  the 
women  of  this  same  Gujerati  Hindu  community 
who  a few  months  past  came  together  in  a meeting 
of  vigorous  protest  against  the  gambling  which  was 
prevalent  among  the  women  of  their  community. 
Not  only  were  forceful  speeches  made;  each  member 
of  the  audience  carried  home  telling  cartoons,  hand- 
bills, booklets,  etc.,  on  which  to  ponder  at  her  leisure. 

The  Jain  community  has  often  been  accused  of 
being  “backward,”  but  for  several  years  the  Jain 
women  have  been  coming  together  in  conferences, 
passing  “resolutions  condemning  early  marriages, 
emphasizing  the  need  of  female  education,  and 
suggesting  the  establishment  of  widows’  homes.” 
Nearly  four  thousand  Jain  women  attended  such  a 
conference  recently. 

Provincial  women’s  social  conferences  meet  each 
year,  attended  by  hundreds  of  women,  presided  over 
by  women,  at  which  women  move  and  pass  carefully 
thought-out  resolutions  which  show  the  breadth  of 
the  ideals  which  they  have  set  before  them. 

Women’s  clubs  But  ideals,  in  the  minds  of  these 

m India.  Indian  women,  are  not  things  simply 

to  be  set  before  one,  or  embodied  in  resolutions. 
Ideals  are  to  be  actively  and  persistently  striven 
toward.  And  in  order  to  make  their  dreams  of  a new 
Indian  womanhood  come  true  they  are  organizing 
social  service  clubs,  and  performing  very  definite  and 
concrete  pieces  of  service.  It  is  the  Gujerati  Hindu 


WOMEN  WORKING  TOGETHER  I 8 1 

women  who  compose  the  membership  of  one  of  the 
oldest  of  these  societies,  the  Gujerati  Stree  Mandat 
organized  in  Bombay  in  1903.  Fifteen  years  ago  such 
societies  were  startling  innovations,  and  the  Guje- 
rati Stree  Mandal  received  more  than  its  fair  share 
of  opposition  and  rid'cule.  But  under  the  leader- 
ship of  Mrs.  Jamnabai  Sakkai,  who  was  for  many 
years  its  sole  and  courageous  president,  it  developed 
into  the  strong,  influential  society  it  is  today.  It 
is  conducting  “home  classes”  for  women  who, 
for  one  reason  or  another,  cannot  attend  school, 
has  opened  a free  library  for  Hindu  women,  and  is 
seeking  in  numerous  ways  to  bring  new  interest  and 
meaning  to  the  lives  of  women  who  have  had  few 
opportunities.  Another  society  of  Gujerati  women 
is  the  Vanita  Vishram , which  was  started  in  Surat, 
but  later  extended  its  work  to  Ahmedabad  and 
Bombay.  Lady  Willingdon  opened  its  new  buildings 
in  Bombay  in  1915.  The  chief  object  of  the  Vanita 
Vishram  is  to  provide  homes  and  education  for  the 
needy  women  and  orphan  girls  of  the  Gujerati  Hindu 
community,  and  to  prepare  them  to  support  them- 
selves by  giving  them  training  in  such  subjects  as 
“nursing,  teaching,  domestic  economy,  etc.” 

A work  very  similar  to  that  done  by  the  Vanita 
Vishram  is  being  carried  on  by  the  Mahila  Seva 
Somaj  of  Bangalore,  which  has  received  government 
grants-in-aid,  in  support  of  its  educational  and  in- 
dustrial classes. 

Perhaps  the  most  significant  of  all  the  women’s 
societies  in  India  are  those  in  which  the  women  of 
the  different  communities  of  India  are  united  in  the 
common  purpose  to  serve  their  needy  country 


I 82  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

women.  Just  how  much  this  means,  only  one  who 
knows  India  can  thoroughly  understand.  Says  Mrs. 
Fleming  of  Lahore:  “Unless  one  has  resided  in  an 
Indian  city  influenced  by  Mohammedan  customs,  it 
would  be  hard  to  imagine  the  actual  condition  of 
society  which  confronts  one.  Race,  religion,  caste, 
color,  and  custom  all  combine  to  divide  life  into  so 
many  air-tight  compartments.  . . . The  proud  Par- 
sees  are  self-sufficient  and  uncompromising  in  their 
social  life,  while  the  high-caste  Hindu  and  Moham- 
medan ladies  live  in  their  secluded  zenanas,  knowing 
and  caring  nothing  for  the  outside  world.  Hindus 
and  Mohammedans  never  mingle  with  those  of 
different  religion  or  caste,  and  so  closely  are  the 
ladies  watched  that  they  are  permitted  to  extend 
hospitality  only  to  their  immediate  family  con- 
nections.” 

„ , Yet  these  women  are  now  coming 
The  Seva  Sadan.  . . . T „ . „ 0 

together  tor  service.  In  1908,  in  Bom- 
bay, there  was  started  a women’s  society,  the  chief 
aim  of  which  was  to  train  Indian  women  for  social 
service,  and  which  adopted  the  motto  “One  in  core, 
if  not  in  creed.”  Its  name  Seva  Sadan  means  House 
of  Service,  and  from  the  beginning,  Hindu, Moham- 
medan, and  Parsee  women  have  worked  together  in  it. 

The  Seva  Sadan  “calls  upon  every  woman  to 
become  a benediction,  and  upon  all  who  realize  that 
India’s  two  great  sins  are  her  sin  against  women  and 
her  sin  against  the  depressed,  to  help  in  creating 
Sisters  Ministrant.”  Its  members  take  a vow  in 
which  they  pledge  themselves  to  “look  upon  life  as  a 
sacred  trust  for  loving,  self-sacrificing  service,  and  to 
do  such  service,  so  help  me  God.” 


WOMEN  WORKING  TOGETHER  1 83 

The  Seva  Sadan  now  has  four  branches,  the  largest 
of  them  in  Bombay  and  Poona. 

The  work  of  the  society  is  carried  on  along  three 
main  lines:  educational,  medical,  and  philanthropic, 
and  the  amount  done  is  nothing  short  of  amazing. 
The  Bombay  society  maintains  a home  for  the  home- 
less, a girls’  industrial  school,  free  day  schools  for 
both  girls  and  boys,  a free  library  and  reading  room, 
a large  number  of  educational  classes  and  lecture 
courses  for  women,  a dispensary  for  women  and 
children,  where  thoroughly  trained  Indian  women 
physicians  give  their  services  without  cost,  and  a 
sanitarium  for  consumptives  in  the  Simla  hills,  the 
grounds  of  which  include  a pine  forest  of  about  one 
hundred  acres. 

In  addition  to  all  this,  the  members  do  a great  deal 
of  work  among  the  women  in  the  tenement  districts, 
distributing  food,  nursing  the  sick,  teaching  some- 
thing of  the  laws  of  sanitation  and  hygiene,  advising 
mothers  in  the  care  of  their  children,  and  even  con- 
ducting simple  classes  among  them.  They  visit  the 
factories,  and  use  their  influence  in  helping  to  secure 
better  conditions  for  the  hundreds  of  girls  who  are 
employed  in  them.  Many  of  them  are  regular  visitors 
to  the  hospitals,  and  the  physicians  are  busy  outside 
dispensary  hours  in  the  homes  of  women  who  are  too 
poor  to  pay  for  medical  help,  but  who  are  so  strictly 
secluded  that  they  are  not  able  to  go  to  the  dis- 
pensary. 

Perhaps  the  most  amazing  parts  of  the  reports  of 
the  Seva  Sadan  are  those  which  tell  of  the  relief  work 
done  by  its  members  in  districts  which  have  been 
visited  by  fire  or  famine.  That  the  conservative. 


184  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

secluded  women  of  India,  many  of  them  widows,  to 
whom  years  of  contempt  and  even  abuse  have  taught 
unusual  timidity,  should  go  out  tor  weeks  of  travel 
through  strange  cities  and  unfrequented  country 
roads,  almost  passes  belief.  Yet  members  of  the  Seva 
Sadan  society  did  this  in  1910  at  the  time  of  the 
Salumbra  fire;  in  1911  and  1912  when  the  Gujerat 
famine  was  causing  widespread  distress;  at  the  time 
of  the  Ahmednagar  famine  in  1913;  and  during  the 
Kumbha  Mela  gathering  at  Hardwar  in  1914.  A 
newspaper  account  of  one  such  trip  reports  that  the 
little  group  of  women  carried  relief  to  many  villages 
which  they  could  reach  only  on  the  backs  of  camels. 

The  rapid  growth  of  the  educational  classes  offered 
by  the  Seva  Sadan  Society  shows  how  much  such 
work  is  needed.  “No  one  who  was  present  at  the 
annual  prize-giving  to  the  successful  students  of  the 
Seva  Sadan  home  classes.  . . . can  fail  to  be  im- 
pressed with  the  genuine  desire  that  there  is  among 
women  of  all  castes  to  make  up,  as  far  as  possible, 
for  their  want  of  schooling  during  their  girlhood,” 
said  a Bombay  weekly  recently.  The  latest  available 
reportsgivethenumberof  women  andgirlsin  theclass- 
es  of  the  Bombay  Seva  Sadan  as  over  four  hundred, 
and  those  in  Poona  as  253.  A large  proportion  of  the 
members  of  these  classes  are  young  widows;  and  the 
response  to  this  opportunity  of  training  for  service 
on  the  part  of  so  many  of  those  whose  lives  have  for 
so  long  been  given  over  to  despair,  gives  great  cause 
for  encouragement.  And  that  a woman  of  India, 
herself  a widow,  can  sound  a challenge  to  widows 
such  as  that  being  continually  sounded  by  Mrs. 
Ramabai  Ranade,  the  president  of  the  Bombay  Seva 


WOMEN  WORKING  TOGETHER  1 85 

Sadan  since  its  beginning,  is  one  of  the  brightest 
causes  for  hope  of  a new  life  for  India’s  widows. 
“She  said,”  reads  a report  of  one  of  Mrs.  Ranade’s 
speeches  to  widows,  “that  life  was  indeed  a great 
trust,  and  no  amount  of  personal  distress  ought  to 
be  allowed  to  prevent  them  from  doing  their  duty  to 
their  own  sisters  and  their  own  countrywomen.  To 
her,  God  was  love,  and  the  great  gifts  of  charity, 
affection,  and  tenderness  with  which  He  had  en- 
dowed woman  should  be  used  by  her  in  being  the 
mother  of  the  motherless,  the  helper  of  the  distressed, 
and  the  supporter  of  the  unfortunate.  ...  In 
short,  there  was  no  reason  why  they  should  look 
upon  their  little  family  as  the  only  family.  She 
appealed  to  them  to  look  upon  society  as  their 
family,  and  the  service  of  society  as  the  service  of 
God.  ...  In  the  end  she  exhorted  Indian  women  to 
imitate  the  life  of  the  Sisters  of  Mercy  who  worked 
strenuously  in  hospitals  and  elsewhere,  knowing  no 
distinction  of  caste,  creed,  or  sex.” 

The  Seva  Sadan  is  not  the  only  society  in  which 
Hindus,  Mohammedans,  and  others  join  together  in 
service.  The  Bharat  Stree  Mahamandal  in  the  United 
Provinces  and  Bengal  is  such  a one,  its  aim  being 
“to  form  a common  centre  for  all  women  thinkers  and 
co-workers  of  every  race,  creed,  class,  and  party  in 
India  to  associate  themselves  together  for  the  progress 
of  humanity.”  The  Lahore  League  of  Help  is 
another  such,  and  so  is  the  League  of  Help  of  Lyallpur 
in  which  missionaries  and  native  Christian  women 
take  an  active  part. 

Women's  part  in  That  one  of  the  seven  chapters  of  a 
the  Chinese  recently  published  book  on  the  Chi- 
Revolution.  n£se  Revolution  should  be  entitled 


1 86  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

“The  Women’s  Part”  will  probably  amaze  most 
American  readers.  We  had  not  known  that  there  was 
a “women’s  part”  in  the  revolution.  We  would 
have  thought  that  conservative  old  China  was  the 
last  country  in  the  world  where  women  could  possibly 
have  a part  in  anything  so  revolutionary  as  a revo- 
lution! But  these  are  days  when  the  women  of  every 
nation  are  proving  their  patriotism  in  ways  new  and 
old. 

The  women  of  China,  like  the  women  of  India  and 
the  Near  East,  made  their  gifts  to  their  country  in 
time  of  need.  Through  the  organized  efforts  of 
Chinese  women,  the  wromen  of  Shanghai  aione  con- 
tributed $10,000  during  the  first  days  of  the  revolu- 
tion when  ready  money  was  imperatively  needed. 
Women’s  meetings  were  held,  organized  by  Chinese 
women,  when  hundreds  of  Chinese  tai  tais , heaped 
their  jewels  on  the  platform  as  an  offering  to  the 
Republican  cause;  jewels  which  were  not  simply 
pretty  ornaments,  but  which  in  many  cases  repre- 
sented the  savings  of  many  years,  put  into  gems  in- 
stead of  banks.  Women  who  had  little  or  no  money 
of  their  own  to  give,  girls  who  had  never  before 
thought  of  working  for  others,  put  their  hands  to 
many  unwonted  tasks  in  order  to  earn  money. 
Chinese  women  organized  benefit  performances; 
they  forgot  their  timidity  and  made  house-to-house 
visits  collecting  funds.  Many  an  hour  they  spent  in 
working  on  Red  Cross  equipment,  not  complaining 
even  when  they  were  put  to  sewing  the  heaviest 
canvas. 

Other  and  more  startling  things  they  did.  There  is 
a volcanic  little  Cantonese  woman  in  Shanghai  known 


WOMEN  WORKING  TOGETHER  187 

as  Dr.  Chang.  The  day  after  the  accidentally  pre- 
mature outbreak  of  the  revolution,  Dr.  Chang 
called  a meeting  of  women  in  Shanghai,  and  asked 
for  volunteers  to  start  with  her  immediately  for  the 
battle  fields  of  Hankow.  The  next  day  she  set  out  for 
Hankow  with  between  thirty  and  forty  women. 
Untrained  they  were,  almost  all  of  them,  poorly 
equipped,  pretty  badly  frightened  sometimes,  but 
dauntlessly  loyal  to  their  country  and  the  Chinese 
cause.  All  about  the  country  they  rode  on  their 
little  ponies,  from  one  shifting  battlefield  to  another; 
and  because  trained  medical  help  could  be  secured 
only  in  the  city  of  Hankow,  and  some  cases  demanded 
immediate  attention,  they  often  gave  more  than 
“first  aid.”  Dr.  Chang  alone,  with  the  meager  little 
kit  she  carried,  performed  over  one  hundred  emer- 
gency amputations  during  three  days  when  the 
fighting  was  especially  fierce.  Day  after  day  this 
little  company  worked  on  the  open  battlefield,  or  in 
a roughly  furnished  tea  hong  in  the  Russian  quarter 
of  Hankow,  going  without  food  for  twelve  hours  at  a 
stretch,  some  of  them  wounded  themselves,  none  of 
them  dreaming  of  deserting  till  their  work  was  done. 

Other  women  there  were,  school  girls  many  of 
them,  whose  patriotic  fervor  incited  them  to  run 
away  from  home  and  friends,  determined  to  take 
part  in  the  actual  fighting.  Both  from  the  south  and 
the  north,  young  girls  took  the  long  journey  to  eastern 
China,  determined  to  go  to  the  front.  In  China, 
home  of  the  “lily-footed”  women,  the  stronghold  of 
conservatism,  companies  of  Chinese  girls  drilled 
daily  under  an  officer  of  the  men’s  army,  running,  at 
his  command,  at  a military  trot  for  a full  half  hour 


1 88  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

without  stopping!  It  was  only  when  Sun  Yat  Sen 
pointed  out  to  these  girls  that  their  gravest  dangers 
would  lie  in  the  men  with  whom  they  would  have  to 
live  and  fight  that  the  “Women’s  Army,”  as  they  were 
called,  reluctantly  gave  up  their  hope  of  going  to  the 
front,  and  decided  to  turn  their  energies  to  the 
equally  dangerous  task  of  making  bombs.  Crude 
they  are,  perhaps,  such  expressions  of  love  of  country 
as  these,  but  very  genuine.  “They  were  ready  to 
give  themselves  to  their  country  whatever  the  sacri- 
fice might  be,”  says  a secretary  of  the  Young  Wom- 
en’s Christian  Association  who  kept  in  touch  with 
these  militant  young  persons  through  the  months 
they  were  in  Shanghai.  “And  they  had,”  she  adds, 
“a  courage  and  determination  which  should  carry 
them  far  along  the  right  road  when  once  they  find  it.” 

The  story  of  the  working  together  of  China’s 
women  leaves  no  room  for  doubt  that  these  energetic, 
keen-minded  women  are  going  to  bring  things  to 
pass.  What  they  will  bring  to  pass  is  not  always  so 
clear.  It  depends  upon  the  women  who  lead. 

Meetings  Of  new  The  women  of  the  interior  city  of 
women  in  old  Sianfu  organized  a very  few  years  ago 
Chma‘  an  Anti  Foot-binding  Society.  The 

account  of  the  first  meeting  of  this  society,  given  by 
Miss  Shekelton,  a missionary  who  v/as  invited  to 
attend  it,  vividly  illustrates  practically  every  phase 
of  this  transition  period  in  the  life  of  Chinese  women. 

“The  room  was  packed,  and  the  benches  were 
crowded  with  ladies.  Many,  it  was  evident  from  their 
not  too  decorous  behavior,  were  present  at  a meeting 
for  the  first  time  in  their  lives.  They  were  gorgeously 
dressed  and  lounged,  smoked,  and  chatted  with  their 


WOMEN  WORKING  TOGETHER  1 89 

slave  girls  in  a most  nonchalant  way.  On  and  around 
the  platform  were  the  leading  ladies  of  the  society, 
dressed  most  variously;  a few  in  imitation  of  West- 
ern costume,  some  too  absurd  for  description. 
One  wore  a dainty  lavendar  satin  robe  while  a man’s 
hideous  felt  hat,  trimmed  with  a bunch  of  red  paper 
roses  crowned  her  glossy  black  hair!  Others  were 
brilliantly  and  tastefully  arrayed  in  old-style  cos- 
tumes, pale  blue  or  pink  silks,  with  embroidered 
skirts,  and  tiny  satin  shoes.  Others  again,  with 
severe  republican  simplicity,  disdained  everything 
but  the  dark  blue  calico  of  daily  wear. 

“On  the  platform  stood  Mrs.  L ,the  chair- 

woman, a capable,  managing  old  lady  with  grey  hair, 
handsomely  attired  in  a dark  blue  satin  costume.  She 
was  giving  the  opening  address,  which  was  fluent 
but  without  any  grace  of  language,  and  in  too  scolding 
a tone.  The  moment  she  began  to  speak,  a younger 
lady,  who  all  through  acted  as  master  of  ceremonies, 
rushed  up  and  down  the  hall,  saying  in  a stage 
whisper  to  everyone,  ‘When  she  finishes,  be  sure 
you  clap  your  hands!  See!  Like  this!’  An  interrup- 
tion sufficiently  disturbing,  we  would  think,  to  the 
orator,  especially  as  some  benchfuls  of  ladies  wanted 
to  practice  immediately.  The  chairwoman,  however, 
managed  to  get  through  her  address  with  much 
sangfroid,  in  spite  of  the  confusion.  Following  her 
speech  came  a younger  woman,  an  educated  girl,  who 
spoke  charmingly,  and  with  deep  feeling — with  a 
pretty  shyness,  too,  which  made  her  address  more 
effective.  She  well  deserved  the  praiseworthy  at- 
tempts at  clapping  which  followed  her  speech.  Next 
came  Mrs.  M , once  a slave  girl,  now  the  wife  of 


I9O  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

a general.  This  speaker  was  quite  without  education 
and  refinement.  She  bounced  on  to  the  platform, 
gesticulating  wildly,  and  pranced  about  the  dais  as 
she  spoke.  Despite  her  ludicrous  appearance,  for 
dress  and  manner  matched  each  other,  the  address 
was  vivid  and  clever,  and  the  applause  of  the  audience 
quite  frantic.  . . . 

“An  attempt  was  now  made  by  the  chairwoman  to 
have  a resolution  moved,  to  get  it  seconded,  and  to 
persuade  the  miscellaneous  audience  to  vote.  We 
sympathized  with  her  efforts  to  have  the  whole  thing 
carried  through  in  a businesslike  way,  and  to  be 
really  effective  in  her  plan  of  campaign.  Most  of  the 
audience,  however,  thought  the  proposed  ‘show  of 
hands’  was  a fresh  invitation  to  clap,  and  the  meeting 
ended  vaguely  and  without  voting,  in  a tempest  of 
applause.  There  had  been  some  earnest  speeches, 
spoken  with  real  feeling,  and  we  will  hope  for  prac- 
tical results  as  to  the  reform  of  this  cruel  custom  of 
foot-binding. 

“We  were  asked  to  accompany  the  ladies  of  the 
committee  to  a public  building  close  by,  where  we 
found  a large  meeting  of  men  assembled.  This 
meeting  was  a political  gathering  of  many  of  the 
chief  men  of  the  city.  They  listened  with  keen  at- 
tention to  the  various  addresses  given  by  the  ladies, 
sometimes  interrupting  with  loud  applause.  The 
women  speakers,  with  one  exception,  spoke  with 
graceful  modesty,  putting  their  arguments  clearly, 
and  with  feeling.  After  this  we  all  left,  the  men  on  the 
platform  rising  politely  while  we  filed  out.  The  true 
significance  of  all  this  respect  and  courtesy  can  only 
be  fully  understood  by  those  who  have  seen  the 
contempt  shown  to  women  under  the  old  regime.” 


WOMEN  WORKING  TOGETHER  Igl 

It  is  irresistibly  funny,  this  picture  of  Chinese 
women’s  united  effort,  and  inexpressibly  pathetic. 
It  awakens  apprehension  and  confidence.  One  is 
alternately  trembling  at  the  lack  of  balance  of  these 
newly  awakened  women  of  China,  and  glorying  in 
the  initiative  and  ability  and  courageous  determina- 
tion even  of  those  who  have  had  the  fewest  oppor- 
tunities. And  always,  underneath  all  other  emotions, 
is  the  consciousness  that  crude,  even  grotesque  as 
such  a meeting  as  this  may  be,  there  is  in  it  power 
which  will  go  far  toward  determining  what  the 
coming  years  shall  be  in  China. 

Chinese  women  are  meeting  together  these  days 
for  a great  variety  of  reasons.  Two  hundred  and 
fifty  of  them  met  in  Peking,  some  time  past,  to  pass 
resolutions  asking  that  measures  be  taken  by  the 
government  to  do  away  with  concubinage.  Approxi- 
mately ten  thousand  women  in  Canton  came  through 
a pouring  rain  to  pledge  themselves  to  a boycott  of 
all  Japanese  goods,  and  it  is  reported  that  “the 
proceedings  were  conducted  in  a perfectly  orderly 
manner,”  and  that  the  great  company  of  women 
listened  intently  to  four  hours  of  vigorous  speaking 
on  the  part  of  some  of  their  number. 

Rallies  of  women  have  been  held  to  combat  the 
growing  use  of  the  cigarette,  which  Western  com- 
panies have  been  energetically  introducing  in  China 
while  she  has  been  so  heroically  trying  to  free  herself 
from  opium.  Women  have  come  together  in  great 
numbers  to  add  their  strength  to  the  anti-opium 
campaign,  and  hundreds  of  them  have  signed 
petitions  to  the  Anti  Opium  Society  of  England, 
asking  for  their  continued  help. 


WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 


I92 

Women’s  societies  Societies  of  Chinese  women  are  aiming 
m China.  at  the  achievement  of  great  things. 

A Suffrage  Society  has  been  organized,  but  political 
power  is  only  one,  and  a comparatively  minor  one, 
of  the  aims  of  this  society.  Ten  things  to  be  striven 
after  are  named  in  the  constitution  of  this  society; 
the  abolition  of  foot-binding,  the  education  of  women, 
the  prohibition  of  concubinage,  the  forbidding  of 
child  marriages,  reforms  in  regard  to  prostitution, 
social  service  for  women  in  industry,  the  encourage- 
ment of  modesty  in  dress,  better  terms  of  marriage 
leading  toward  marriages  for  love,  the  establishment 
of  political  rights,  and  the  general  elevation  of  the 
position  of  women  in  the  family  and  the  home.  The 
leadership  of  this  organization  is  in  the  hands  of  very 
extreme  young  Chinese  women,  and  just  how  much 
actually  constructive  work  it  is  doing  it  is  difficult 
to  determine. 

The  Soda!  Service  What  a society  of  Chinese  women  can 
League  of  do  when  educated  leadership  is  avail- 

Changsha.  able  jg  go  super^]y  illustrated  by  an 

account  of  the  Social  Service  League  of  Changsha, 
contributed  by  Mrs.  Hume  to  a recent  number  of  The 
Survey , that  it  may  well  be  given  here  almost  in  full. 

“The  Women’s  Social  Service  League  of  Changsha 
was  organized  in  the  fall  of  1913,  as  a distinctively 
Chinese  institution.  The  work,  while  planned  and 
directed  by  Westerners,  has  been  done  entirely  by 
Chinese  women  of  the  better  class.  With  the  excep- 
tion of  $150  subscribed  by  Westerners,  all  the  funds 
used  through  the  first  year  were  given  by  the  Chinese. 
The  wife  of  the  governor  of  the  province  of  Hunan, 
of  which  Changsha  is  the  capital,  is  a subscribing 


HALIDEH  HANOUM 


WOMEN  WORKING  TOGETHER  I93 

member,  and  so  deeply  interested  is  she  in  the 
activities  undertaken  that  in  addition  to  her  regular 
membership  fee,  she  has  recently  donated  $300  for 
special  relief  carried  on  by  the  League  during  a 
serious  flood. 

“It  was  soon  found  that  the  work  of  the  League  had 
a double  significance.  On  the  one  hand,  it  offered 
practical  relief  to  the  poor  by  teaching  them  methods 
of  self-protection  against  disease  and  by  offering 
facilities  for  relief  from  disease  and  unhygienic 
living;  it  also  furnished  the  well-to-do  leisure  class  of 
Chinese  women  an  opportunity  for  outreaching, 
unselfish  service  for  others. 

“In  such  work,  too,  can  be  found  a means  for  the 
ultimate  salvation  of  these  women  through  teaching 
them  Christ’s  law  of  service.  Monthly  meetings  of 
a social  character  have  brought  all  the  members  to- 
gether, while  the  active  work  of  the  League  has  been 
carried  on  by  an  executive  committee  which  has  met 
frequently  for  discussion.  A unique  Christmas  cele- 
bration was  arranged  for  the  several  hospitals  of  the 
city,  and  in  every  case  the  dominant  note  was  joy 
linked  with  and  dependent  on  service. 

“During  the  first  year,  two  assistants  were  paid  by 
the  League — Miss  Wu,  a qualified  graduate  nurse, 
particularly  skillful  in  obstetrics;  and  Mrs.  Yang, 
employed  to  investigate  cases  referred  by  doctors  on 
duty  at  the  hospital  clinics.  As  a result  of  her  in- 
quiries, much  has  been  learned  about  the  home  con- 
ditions of  poor  patients  and  the  League  has  been  able 
to  aid  judiciously  many  really  deserving  ones. 

“Since  every  rational  effort  to  wage  a successful 
campaign  against  disease  must  rest  upon  an  educa- 


194  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

tional  basis,  it  has  been  particularly  necessary,  in  a 
Chinese  city,  to  begin  the  effort  to  better  health  con- 
ditions by  hygienic  instruction.  During  this  first 
year,  tuberculosis  and  infant  mortality  were  made 
the  special  objects  of  the  League’s  activity. 

“The  ever-increasing  prevalence  of  tuberculosis 
(due  in  part  to  the  tendency  to  build  more  substan- 
tial and  less  well-ver.tilated  structures)  and  the 
hopeless  ignorance  of  its  cause  and  the  manner  of  its 
spread  made  it  natural  to  direct  our  first  efforts 
against  this  disease.  Lectures  were  given  in  every 
section  of  the  city,  and  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  these 
lectures  were  given  in  the  evening,  when  it  might 
have  been  feared  that  women  with  families  would 
be  unable  to  attend,  there  was  a total  attendance  of 
over  ten  thousand  women  and  girls.  To  each  person 
attending  there  was  given  a simple  set  of  rules  for  the 
prevention  of  tuberculosis. 

“Realizing  the  necessity  of  having  the  lectures 
illustrated  by  local  scenes  and  Chinese  settings,  in 
order  to  make  the  unhygienic  conditions  more  vivid, 
the  League  nad  a new  set  of  lantern  slides  prepared 
for  it  by  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  in  Shanghai  for  use  in  the 
second  winter’s  campaign.  The  government  schools 
have  welcomed  every  suggestion  for  lectures  in  the 
schools.  This  ought  to  prove  one  of  the  most  hopeful 
fields  for  the  introduction  of  reforms.  The  lectures 
in  these  government  girls’  schools  were  very  largely 
attended. 

“As  to  our  campaign  against  infant  mortality:  The 
campaign  was  begun  by  widespread  vaccination 
against  smallpox  throughout  the  city.  The  police 
department,  which  includes  a bureau  of  hygiene, 


WOMEN  WORKING  TOGETHER  I95 

supplied  the  vaccine  without  charge,  and  the  League 
issued  pamphlets  and  put  up  posters  urging  the  im- 
portance of  vaccination.  A hospital  nurse,  assisted 
by  the  social  service  worker,  established  vaccination 
stations  in  four  parts  of  the  city,  supplementing  the 
work  of  the  hospitals. 

“Lectures  similar  to  those  on  tuberculosis  were 
given  on  “The  Care  of  Children”;  and  on  every 
occasion  when  the  district  nurse  thus  lectured,  a 
set  of  rules  on  “How  to  Keep  the  Baby  Well”  was 
given  to  each  member  of  the  audience.  The  League 
is  trying,  in  conjunction  with  the  police  commissioner, 
to  find  a way  by  which  the  infant  mortality  of  the 
city  may  be  regularly  ascertained. 

“Further,  the  League  has  secured  the  grounds  of 
several  government  schools  for  playgrounds  during 
the  summer. 

“Three  milk  stations  for  the  free  distribution  of 
milk  have  been  opened,  in  the  northern,  central,  and 
southern  sections  of  the  city.  The  milk  is  prepared 
according  to  formulae,  in  eight  different  strengths 
for  children  from  birth  to  two  years  of  age.  A set 
of  bottles  is  provided  for  each  child  every  day,  each 
bottle  containing  just  enough  for  one  feeding.  The 
milk  is  prepared  at  the  central  station  (the  Yale 
Hospital)  and  is  sent  by  special  messenger  to  the 
branch  stations.  Tickets  have  been  placed  in  the 
hands  of  each  of  the  missionary  societies  and  when 
properly  signed  may  be  exchanged  for  a daily  supply 
of  milk  for  weak  or  sick  infants.  Those  who  can,  pay 
from  five  to  thirty  cents  a day,  according  to  the 
amount  of  milk  required.  The  results  during  the 
first  month  of  the  distribution  surpassed  all  ex- 


I96  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

pectations,  about  two  hundred  bottles  of  prepared 
feeding  having  been  called  for  daily. 

“In  addition  to  the  circulars  given  out  at  the  lec- 
tures, a series  of  pamphlets  for  use  throughout  central 
China  was  ordered  to  be  prepared — the  topics  being 
as  follows:  Contagious  diseases,  care  of  the  teeth, 
indigestion  in  summer,  instructions  to  parents 
regarding  trachoma  and  other  eye  diseases,  tubercu- 
losis, and  an  adaptation  of  Holt’s  Care  of  the  Baby. 

“But  the  work  of  the  first  year  soon  showed  the 
need  for  a definite  exhibit  which  should  enable 
people  to  visualize  what  they  were  being  taught. 
Through  the  combined  efforts  of  the  public-health 
committees  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  the  China  Medical 
Missionary  Association,  much  material  was  as- 
sembled. Special  lantern  slides  were  made  from 
Chinese  surroundings,  and  mechanical  devices  for 
showing  death-rate,  incidence  of  tuberculosis,  etc., 
were  prepared,  corresponding  very  closely  to  the 
type  of  exhibit  now  frequently  seen  in  the  United 
States.  This  was  shown  in  Changsha  under  the 
auspices  of  the  League  in  May,  and  the  attendance 
during  six  days  was  30,622.  Physicians  and  others 
gave  lectures,  often  having  to  repeat  these  as  often 
as  four  times  in  a single  day. 

“No  popular  event  in  Changsha  in  recent  years  has 
so  impressed  the  body  of  citizens,  and  people  were 
found  in  every  section  of  the  city  discussing  what 
they  had  seen  and  heard.  While  interest  was  at  its 
height,  a subscription  list  for  a tuberculosis  hospital 
was  opened  and  during  exhibit  week  alone  #4,000 
(Chinese  currency)  was  secured,  to  which  the  civil 
governor  of  the  province  at  once  added  #10,000. 


WOMEN  WORKING  TOGETHER  1 9'/ 

This  sum,  with  $2,000  previously  subscribed  by  two 
brothers  whose  lives  are  devoted  to  public  service, 
will  go  a long  way  towards  providing  this  much- 
needed  institution. 

“Changsha  is  but  one  of  China’s  twenty-one 
capitals;  its  population  of  three  hundred  thousand  is 
exceeded  by  that  in  several  larger  cities.  The  move- 
ment started  here  by  a group  of  women  should  spread 
all  over  the  land.  A great  unrecognized  force  is  pres- 
ent within  the  homes,  and  women  who  have  hitherto 
been  thought  of  as  leading  a butterfly  existence  of 
idleness  can  be  brought  into  line  for  public  service.” 
other  women’s  A Women’s  League  of  Service  has 
organizations.  recently  been  organized  in  Shang- 
hai, also.  It  was  initiated  by  some  Christian  Chinese 
women  in  the  Young  Women’s  Christian  Association, 
but  its  membership  is  not  at  all  limited  to  Christians. 
“We  as  a people  know  the  meaning  of  love  of  self,” 
said  one  of  the  members  of  this  Shanghai  League  of 
Service,  “or  even  the  love  of  individuals  when  they 
are  members  of  our  families  or  intimate  friends;  but 
for  centuries  we  have  had  no  idea  of  love  of  society. 
Our  streets  have  been  little  and  narrow  because  each 
householder  has  wanted  to  get  as  much  room  as 
possible  for  himself,  and  has  given  no  thought  to  the 
public  who  must  pass  through  the  street.  You  can 
judge  a country’s  civilization  by  the  condition  of  the 
masses.  We  are  proud  of  our  great  scholars  and  our 
long  centuries  of  culture;  but  when  we  look  at  the 
wretches  who  do  the  work  of  beasts  of  burden,  the 
beggars  who  crowd  the  streets,  or  the  shiftless  boat- 
men who  exist  on  a cent  or  two  a day,  then  we  must 
confess  that  there  is  something  lacking  in  our  civiliza- 


I98  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

tion;  and  I will  tell  you  what  it  is:  it  is  public  love!” 
It  is  the  dawn  of  a new  day,  when  Chinese  women 
see  so  clearly,  speak  so  bravely,  and  join  together  for 
action. 

In  China,  as  in  other  Oriental  lands,  women  are 
doing  valiant  service  in  the  Red  Cross,  for  the  army 
in  time  of  war,  and  for  the  poor  in  the  days  of  peace 
which  have  been  so  rare  in  China  of  late.  The 
Woman’s  Christian  Temperance  Union  is  another 
organization  in  which  their  united  efforts  have  had 
splendid  results,  under  such  leadership  as  that  of 
Dr.  Mary  Stone,  the  gifted  little  Chinese  physician 
of  Kiukiang,  who  was  one  of  its  recent  presidents. 

The  work  of  the  Young  Women’s  Christian  Asso- 
ciation is  more  and  more  completely  coming  under 
the  direction  of  Chinese  women.  The  secretary  of 
the  Shanghai  Association  wrote  a few  years  ago: 
“We  have  seen  a great  difference  in  the  spirit  of  the 
Chinese  women  since  the  revolution.  . . . There 
is  growing,  and  rightly,  the  desire  to  put  the  Chinese 
to  the  front  and  let  the  foreigner  take  the  place  of 
adviser  and  helper.” 

In  an  account  of  a recent  trip,  Miss  Coppock,  the 
national  secretary  of  the  Association,  reported 
attending  a meeting  of  the  Canton  Board  of  Directors 
where  for  “nearly  two  hours,  when  very  important 
issues  were  being  discussed,  and  far-reaching  decisions 
made,  the  Chinese  Board  members  and  the  Chinese 
secretary  transacted  all  the  business,  and  the  Ameri- 
can secretary  never  once  opened  her  mouth.”  The 
members  of  this  Association  had  just  completed  a 
finance  campaign,  dividing  their  forces  into  two 
teams,  the  reds  and  the  whites.  “Practically  all  the 


WOMEN  WORKING  TOGETHER  I99 

work  was  done  by  the  Chinese  ladies,  without  the 
he  p of  the  foreign  secretary,”  and  more  money  than 
was  needed  for  current  expenses  was  raised,  so 
$2000  was  put  in  the  bank  as  the  nucleus  of  a fund 
for  land  for  a new  building!  Miss  Coppock  speaks 
especially  of  the  large  amount  of  time  which  the 
members  of  the  Boards  of  Directors  of  Associations 
in  China  are  giving  to  the  work,  but  says  that  it  is 
not  at  the  cost  of  their  families.  ”1  have  been  in  the 
homes  of  several  of  them,  and  they  are  among  the 
most  ideally  Christian  homes  to  be  found  anywhere.” 
Chinese  women  seem  to  be  proving  the  inaccuracy 
of  the  statement  that  “you  can’t  do  two  things  at 
once,  and  do  either  one  well.” 

Patriotic  work  That  love  of  country  is  the  greatest 
ia  Japan.  0f  a|i  virtues  is  a teaching  which  the 

code  of  Bushido  has  bred  in  the  bone  of  every  Japa- 
nese man  and  woman  from  childhood.  How  real  a 
love  it  is,  the  Japanese  women  demonstrated  in  a 
thousand  ways  during  the  Russo-Japanese  war. 
Nothing  that  women  could  do  was  unthought  of  or 
neglected;  no  task  was  too  difficult  to  be  undertaken; 
no  sacrifice  was  too  great  to  be  made.  At  the  be- 
ginning of  the  war,  a missionary  says,  a little  band 
of  women  set  themselves  the  task  of  meeting  every 
train  of  soldiers  that  passed.  “Day  or  night,  rain 
or  shine,  these  women  have  never  failed.  Admitted 
to  the  platform  without  question,  they  have  never 
let  a soldier  go  without  the  sympathy  of  their 
presence  and  parting  banzai.”  This  was  only  one 
of  many  things  which  their  patriotism  prompted. 
School  girls  gave  up  desserts  to  swell  war  and  relief 
funds,  rolled  bandages  by  the  thousand  and  prepared 


200  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

comfort  bags  by  the  hundred,  postponed  their 
summer  home  going  to  stay  in  the  city,  through  the 
intense  heat  of  Japan’s  July,  to  make  sets  of  soldiers’ 
underwear  needed  immediately,  and  promised  to 
knit  fifteen  hundred  pairs  of  socks  during  the  vaca- 
tion. Almost  ten  thousand  women  in  the  Red  Cross 
Ladies’  Nursing  Association,  and  over  five  hundred 
thousand  in  the  Women’s  Patriotic  League  gave 
money  and  service  without  stint.  Members  of  the 
Red  Cross  attended  weekly  first-aid  lectures  and  took 
lessons  in  bandaging.  Some  of  them  went  to  the 
front  to  nurse  the  wounded  there.  Some  did  the 
work  of  nurses  in  the  city  hospitals  to  which  soldiers 
were  sent,  and  others  gave  much  time  to  visiting  in 
the  military  hospitals,  distributing  magazines,  writ- 
ing letters  for  the  soldiers,  and  doing  whatever  else 
they  could  to  help  them.  The  purpose  of  the  Women’s 
Patriotic  League,  founded  by  Madame  Okumura,  is 
especially  to  give  help  to  disabled  soldiers,  or  the 
families  of  men  killed  or  disabled  in  battle,  and  to 
this  appeal  of  need  Japanese  women  have  responded 
most  generously.  The  present  war  has  been  farther 
removed  from  them,  and  Japan’s  participation  in 
it  has  not  yet  been  great.  But  the  Japanese  women 
are  responding  to  the  slighter  demands  of  the  present 
time  with  no  less  loyalty. 

Organized  work  Women’s  societies  are  not  quite  such 
of  Japanese  new  and  youthful  things  in  Japan  as 

women.  they  are  in  most  of  the  other  parts 

of  the  Orient.  It  is  fortyyears  now  since  thirty  women 
organized  the  Women’s  Educational  Society,  which 
now  numbers  its  members  by  hundreds,  conducts  an 
industrial  school  for  girls,  issues  a monthly  maga- 


DR.  MARY  STONE,  HEAD  OF  THE  DAN'FORTH 
MEMORIAL  HOSPITAL,  KIUKIANG 


WOMEN  WORKING  TOGETHER  201 

zine,  and  holds  large  monthly  meetings.  The  Wom- 
en’s Hygienic  Association  has  a membership  of 
several  thousand,  and  is  doing  a useful  work  through 
lectures  and  meetings.  The  Mothers’  Union  is  a 
very  active  and  flourishing  organization,  with 
branches  throughout  the  empire.  One  of  the  best- 
known  women’s  societies  is  the  Tokyo  Charity 
Hospital  Association,  which  established  and  supports 
the  Tokyo  Charity  Hospital.  Poor  and  orphaned 
sick  children  are  the  especial  care  of  the  Ikuji  Society, 
which  has  a membership  of  over  two  thousand 
women.  This  society  investigates  the  cases  of  sick 
children,  whose  friends  cannot  afford  to  give  them 
proper  medical  treatment,  and  places  them  in  hospi- 
tals where  they  will  receive  the  care  they  need. 
Japan  has  a larger  percentage  of  insanity  than  any 
other  nation,  and  these  unfortunates  are  the  special 
care  of  one  organization  of  women,  known  as  The 
Ladies’  Aid  Association  for  Lunatics. 

Perhaps  nowhere  is  there  a more  active  branch  of 
the  Woman’s  Christian  Temperance  Union  than  that 
in  Japan  which  was  organized  in  1886,  and  which 
under  the  untiring  and  splendidly  efficient  leader- 
ship of  Mrs.  Kaji  Yajima,  who  is  still  its  president, 
has  grown  steadily  in  strength  and  numbers.  Its 
members,  of  whom  there  are  about  five  thousand, 
pledge  themselves  “to  improve  public  morality  and 
eradicate  social  evils,  especially  wine-drinking  and 
smoking,  to  work  for  social  purity,  and  to  change 
customs  and  manners  for  the  better.”  The  Union 
publishes  two  magazines,  one  of  which  has  a sub- 
scription list  of  eleven  thousand,  conducts  a Rescue 
Home  which  seeks  to  do  both  preventive  and  re- 


202  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

formative  work,  carries  on  a night  school  for  girls, 
does  a great  amount  of  educational  work  among 
women,  and  employs  a secretary  who  gives  almost 
her  entire  time  to  the  work  for  children. 

Another  much  younger  organization  in  which  the 
Christian  women  of  Japan  are  uniting  is  the  Young 
Women’s  Christian  Association,  which  was  opened 
in  Japan  in  1905  at  the  request  of  the  missionary 
body.  As  in  China,  so  in  Japan,  the  responsibility 
for  this  work  is  increasingly  borne  by  Japanese 
Boards  of  Directors  and  Japanese  secretaries.  The 
Association  has  organized  both  city  and  student 
Associations,  publishes  a monthly  magazine,  and 
holds  a summer  conference  each  summer.  No  one 
who  has  ever  had  the  pleasure  of  attending  one  of 
these  summer  conferences  can  ever  doubt  either  the 
executive  ability,  the  gift  for  public  speech,  or  the 
earnestness  of  Japanese  Christian  women.  Japanese 
women  plan  the  conference  program,  a Japanese 
woman  is  the  business  manager,  another  is  the  pre- 
siding officer,  and  others  are  among  the  best  speakers 
heard  during  the  ten  days. 

, Few  elements  of  the  situation  in  the 

The  future.  ~ . . . . r , 

Orient  today  are  so  significant  as  the 

breaking  down  of  the  barriers  which  have  separated 

Oriental  women,  and  their  newly  discovered  ability 

to  work  together.  If  all  this  power,  so  recently 

released,  can  be  captured  for  the  cause  of  Christ,  it 

will  undoubtedly  prove  to  be  one  of  the  most  effective 

agencies  in  bringing  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  to  the 

Orient. 


WOMEN  WORKING  TOGETHER 


203 


Christian  Missions  and  Women  Working  Together 

The  part  which  Christian  missions  have  played  in  breaking 
down  the  barriers  which  have  kept  Oriental  women  apart,  and 
in  creating  the  new  ideals  and  purposes  which  have  brought  them 
together  in  united  effort,  has  been  no  small  one.  It  was  in  many 
and  many  a case  the  Christian  missionary  who  first  brought  the 
Oriental  woman  into  contact  with  her  neighbors.  It  was  in  the 
little  pioneer  Christian  churches  of  the  East  that  many  of  the 
first  meetings  of  women  were  held.  Most  of  the  earliest  women’s 
conferences  of  the  Orient  were  Christian  conferences,  inaugurated 
by  far-sighted  missionaries  who  saw  that  permanent  and  far- 
reaching  Christian  work  for  Oriental  women  could  be  done  only 
when  the  Christian  women  of  the  East  felt  their  responsibility 
for  such  work,  and  unitedly  assumed  that  responsibility.  The 
impulses  which  led  to  the  establishment  of  many  of  those  splen- 
did organizations,  in  the  work  of  which  Oriental  women  are  so 
efficiently  leading  today,  might  have  still  been  lying  dormant, 
had  the  spirit  and  influence  of  Christian  missions  not  awakened 
them  and  roused  them  to  action.  Moreover,  in  several  in- 
stances, the  first  steps  toward  the  formation  of  these  organi- 
zations were  taken  by  missionaries.  The  first  Anti  Foot-binding 
Society  of  China,  the  forerunner  of  the  national  organization  in 
which  Chinese  and  foreign  women  are  working  together  today, 
was  established  in  1873  by  a missionary  of  Amoy,  who  gathered 
together  a group  of  Chinese  mothers,  and  so  convinced  them 
of  the  evils  of  foot-binding  that  they  "put  their  marks"  to  a 
pledge  not  to  bind  their  daughters’  feet,  or  marry  their  sons  to 
girls  whose  feet  were  bound.  In  every  Oriental  country  where 
the  Young  Women’s  Christian  Association  is  working  today,  it 
has  gone  in  response  to  an  appeal  from  the  missionary  bodies 
of  that  country,  and  it  has  entered  every  city  of  the  East  in 
which  it  is  now  at  work,  because  the  missionaries  resident  in 
that  city  have  united  in  urging  its  coming.  Missionaries  are 
members  of  all  its  National  Committees,  and  while  several 
local  Boards  are  now  composed  wholly  of  Oriental  women, 
missionaries  have  always  been  among  the  original  members  of 
these  Boards,  and  the  work  could  never  have  been  inaugurated 
without  the  sympathetic  co-operation  and  help  which  the  mis- 


WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 


204 

sionary  workers  have  unfailingly  given.  The  growing  work  of 
the  Woman’s  Christian  Temperance  Union  owes  the  same  debt 
to  the  missionaries  of  the  Boards  which  have  been  longer  at  work 
in  the  East,  and  although,  as  in  the  Young  Women’s  Christian 
Association,  Oriental  women  are  shouldering  large  responsibility 
for  this  work,  it  could  never  have  been  started  without  the 
assistance  of  the  missionaries.  Such  societies  as  the  Changsha 
Social  Service  League,  and  the  Lahore  League  of  Help,  though 
not  Christian  in  name,  and  numbering  many  non-Christian 
women  among  their  leaders,  owe  their  existence  and  much  of 
their  success  to  the  missionaries  who  organized  them,  and  who 
are  taking  so  active  a part  in  their  work.  And  such  organizations 
as  the  Seva  Sadan  Society  of  India,  the  Ikuji  Society  of  Japan, 
and  other  philanthropic  organizations  of  Oriental  women,  of 
which  missionaries  have  been  neither  organizers  nor  members, 
cannot  be  said  to  be  wholly  without  debt  to  the  Christian  mis- 
sionary movement.  Even  as  China,  and  other  Oriental  countries, 
began  to  establish  schools  for  girls  only  after  the  work  of  the 
mission  schools  had  created  new  ideals  for  the  life  of  women,  so, 
in  the  Orient,  organizations  for  the  care  of  the  needy  came 
only  after  the  influence  of  Christian  missions  had  created  a new 
spirit  of  love  and  service,  even  the  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ. 

So  great  is  the  part  Christian  missions  have  played  in  bringing 
the  women  of  the  Orient  together  for  united  work  for  their 
countrywomen.  Even  so  great  is  the  obligation  upon  us  to  help 
to  raise  up  the  leaders  fitted  to  direct  this  organized  energy  of 
Oriental  women,  and  so  to  direct  it  that  it  shall  hasten  the  day 
of  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  on  earth  in  the  lands 
of  the  East. 


WOMEN  WORKING  TOGETHER 


205 


QUESTIONS  ON  CHAPTER  V. 

Aim  of  study:  To  realize  the  significance  of  the  united  work 
of  Oriental  women,  and  the  possibilities  for  good  or  evil  bound 
up  in  their  organized  energy;  and  to  understand  the  challenge 
which  such  a situation  is  sounding  to  the  Christian  women  of  the 
West. 

1.  If  you  knew  nothing  of  them  except  what  is  told  in  this 
chapter,  what  would  you  decide  to  be  the  most  outstanding 
characteristics  of  the  women  of  the  Near  East?  Of  India?  Of 
China?  Of  Japan? 

2.  What  elements  in  their  countries’  civilizations  and  ideals 
have  had  to  be  overcome  by  women  in  order  to  come  together  in 
united  work  and  service  in  Mohammedan  lands?  In  India? 
In  China?  In  Japan? 

3.  What  seem  to  you  the  most  important  and  significant  things 
indicated  by  this  determination  of  women  throughout  the  Orient 
today  to  join  together  for  the  accomplishment  of  various  pur- 
poses ? 

4.  What  characteristics  of  these  women  seem  to  you  to  be 
shown  by  the  purposes  and  causes  for  which  they  are  uniting? 

5.  What  causes  do  you  consider  to  have  been  most  influential 
in  inspiring  Oriental  women  to  this  united  service  ? 

6.  How  great  do  you  think  has  been  the  influence  of  the 
Christian  schools  for  girls;  of  women’s  part  in  the  work  of  the 
Christian  churches;  of  the  example  of  missionary  workers;  of 
Oriental  Christian  women? 

7.  What,  in  your  opinion,  is  most  necessary  to  assure  that  these 
united  efforts  of  Oriental  women  shall  lead  in  the  right  direction, 
and  be  genuinely  constructive  and  effective  elements  in  tae  new 
life  of  the  East? 

8.  In  what  ways  can  this  organized  work  of  women  of  the 
Orient  be  wisely  and  helpfully  influenced  by  Christian  missions? 


CHAPTER  VI. 


Suggested  Scripture  Reading. 

Leadership  in  the  Kingdom.  Ephesians  4: 11-16. 

The  Call  for  Leaders: 

The  Thirst  for  Leaders. 

The  Training  of  Leaders. 

Shaping  Character  in  the  Making. 

Higher  Education: 

The  Constantinople  College. 

The  Isabella  Thoburn  College. 

The  Women’s  Christian  College  of  Madras. 

The  North  China  Union  College. 

Ginling  College. 

The  women’s  department  of  the  Canton  Christian 
College. 

The  Women’s  Christian  College  of  Tokyo. 

The  responsibility  of  success. 

Medical  Schools. 

Training  Schools  for  Christian  Workers. 

The  Challenge  of  this  Hour: 

Our  part. 

The  war  and  our  task. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


THE  CALL  TOR  LEADERS 

The  thirst  for  “China,”  said  one  of  the  most 

leaders.  thoughtful  men  of  that  nation,  not 

long  ago,  “is  athirst  for  leaders!”  With  equal  truth 
it  can  be  said  that  the  women  of  every  country  of 
the  Orient  today  are  athi  st  for  leaders.  How  is  this 
thirst  to  be  assuaged?  Their  leaders  cannot  come 
from  among  the  men  of  the  Ori  nt.  The  men  can  do 
much  to  help,  by  sympathy,  and  by  right  ideals  for 
the  life  of  the  women  of  their  people;  but  the  leader- 
ship is  not  for  men.  Nor  can  their  leaders  come  from 
among  women  of  a totally  different  heritage,  from  a 
wholly  different  environment.  Even  if  women  of  the 
Occident  cou'd  be  poured  into  the  Orient  in  the  un- 
limited numbers  which  would  be  necessary  to  meet 
today’s  demand,  they  could  not  be  the  real  leaders 
of  the  Orient.  Whence  then  is  such  leadership  to 
come?  There  can  be  but  one  answer.  The  leaders  so 
imperatively  needed  among  the  women  of  the  Orient, 
in  this  day  of  rapid  and  revolutionary  changes,  must 
come  from  among  the  educated  women  of  their  own 
people.  And  if  it  is  to  be  the  highest  leadership,  it 
must  come  from  the  Christian  educated  women  of 
the  Orient. 

The  training  of  How,  then,  is  such  leadership  for  the 
leaders.  women  of  the  Orient  to  be  assured? 

Only  by  the  united  efforts  of  East  and  West.  The 
Orient  must  supply  the  leaders,  but  the  Occident 


208  women  workers  of  the  orient 

must  provide  the  training  for  leadership,  which  the 
Orient  cannot  at  present  give.  Oriental  countries 
are,  it  is  true,  making  valiant  efforts  to  provide  for 
the  education  of  women,  but  in  many  parts  of  the 
East  little  more  than  a beginning  has  been  made; 
and  in  no  part  will  there  be  for  many  years  any  such 
provision  for  women’s  education  as  to  guarantee 
an  adequate  number  of  trained  leaders.  Moreover, 
it  could  not  be  expected  that  the  government  or 
private  schools  of  the  Orient  would  produce  a 
Christian  leadership. 

Shaping  character  The  development  of  the  Oriental 
in  the  making.  Christian  women  leaders,  so  urgently 

required,  can  be  assured  only  by  Christian  education. 
To  meet  the  demand  for  them  calls  for  the  strength- 
ening and  development  of  our  Christian  educational 
work  all  along  the  line.  There  must  be  kindergartens 
and  day  schools  in  abundance,  for  they  not  only  give 
opportunity  for  the  planting  and  nurture  of  right 
ideals  in  impressionable  little  minds  and  hearts,  but 
open  a way  of  approach  to  the  young  mothers  whose 
need  of  guidance  is  scarcely  less  than  that  of  their 
children.  Nor  can  the  opportunity  afforded  by  the  high 
schools  for  girls  well  be  overestimated.  These  are 
boarding  schools,  where  the  teachers  have  oppor- 
tunity to  reach  the  lives  of  the  girls,  not  for  a few 
hours  of  the  day,  the  influences  of  which  may  be 
nullified  by  the  rest  of  the  hours  spent  in  a non- 
Christian  home,  but  constantly,  uninterruptedly, 
day  after  day,  month  after  month.  And  this  in- 
fluence is  brought  to  bear  upon  the  girl  at  the  most 
formative  period  of  her  life.  Miss  Miner  of  China 
speaks  truly  when  she  says:  “For  character  in  the 


THE  CALL  FOR  LEADERS  20g 

making,  setting  into  the  hard  lines  which  neither 
better  influence  later  can  easily  alter,  nor  strong 
temptations  easily  erase,  the  middle-school  period 
is  most  important.  This,  too,  is  the  decision  time  for 
many.”  If  we  are  to  raise  up  women  of  strength  and 
poise  and  power,  women  who  have  made  the  great 
decision  to  give  their  lives  to  their  Master  and  to 
self-forgetful  service,  we  must  see  to  it  that  there 
are  Christian  high  schools  for  girls  accessible  to 
every  Oriental  girl;  high  schools  which  will  offer  her 
as  fine  educational  advantages  as  she  can  find  in  any 
school,  and  the  best  opportunities  for  character 
development  anywhere  available. 

T_.  . . Moreover,  we  must  offer  the  able 

Higher  education.  . r , „ „ ... 

graduate  of  the  middle  or  high 
school  opportunity  for  further  education  and  train- 
ing. Such  a situation  as  exists  among  the  women  of 
the  Orient  today  calls  for  leadership  of  the  highest 
order.  The  problems  to  be  solved  can  be  successfully 
dealt  with  only  by  finely  and  thoroughly  trained 
minds.  The  responsibilities  to  be  borne,  the  tasks  to 
which  women’s  hands  must  be  put,  call  for  the  most 
complete  possible  preparation.  We  must,  if  the 
dangers  of  this  transition  period  are  to  be  avoided 
and  its  opportunities  seized,  offer  Oriental  women 
colleges,  where  their  minds  will  be  sharpened  and 
disciplined  by  rigid  training,  and  professional  schools 
where  they  can  receive  preparation  for  the  special 
lines  of  work  through  which  they  purpose  to  serve 
their  people.  The  union  colleges  for  women  already 
established  in  India  and  China  are  altogether  along 
the  right  lines,  and  it  is  earnestly  to  be  hoped  that 
they  will  be  the  forerunners  of  many  others  like 


210  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

them,  as  the  Orient  increasingly  recognizes  its  need 
of  college-trained  women. 

The  One  of  the  best-known  colleges  for 

Constantinople  women  in  the  East  today  is  the  Con- 
Coiiege.  stantinople  College  to  which  frequent 

reference  has  been  made  in  preceding  chapters. 
This  college  is  supported  by  an  independent  board  of 
its  own,  rather  than  by  a union  of  several  mission 
boards.  Yet  it  is  in  a very  real  sense  both  a mission- 
ary and  a union  college,  for  it  is  the  outgrowth  of  a 
high  school  founded  in  1871  by  the  Congregational 
Women’s  Board  of  Missions,  and  it  is  supported  by 
the  members  of  many  denominations  who  desire  to 
promote  the  Christian  higher  education  of  the 
women  of  Mohammedan  lands.  It  was  incorporated 
as  a college  in  1890,  and  has  the  honor  of  being  the 
second  Christian  institution  to  offer  studies  of  college 
grade  to  Oriental  women. 

The  Isabella  The  first  Christian  college  established 
Thoburn  College.  for  women  in  Asia  is  the  Isabella 
Thoburn  College,  at  Lucknow — a splendid  witness 
to  the  far-sighted  wisdom  and  courageous  faith  of 
the  pioneer  missionary  whose  honored  name  it  bears. 

In  1870,  Miss  Thoburn,  the  first  missionary  of 
the  Woman’s  Foreign  Missionary  Society  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  opened  a school  for 
little  girls  in  one  small  room.  In  sixteen  short  years 
she  had  developed  it  into  what  was  in  fact,  as  well 
as  name,  a women’s  college.  Lilavati  Singh,  its 
president-elect  at  the  time  of  her  early  death,  is 
perhaps  the  best-known,  though  by  no  means  the 
only  preeminently  successful  graduate  of  this  well- 
known  institution.  Nothing  could  be  more  in  keep- 


THE  CALL  FOR  LEADERS 


111 


ing  with  the  breadth  of  mind  and  vision  of  its 
founder,  than  the  steps  toward  union  which  the 
Isabella  Thoburn  College  is  now  taking.  It  is 
probable  that  several  of  the  other  American  mission 
boards  which  are  doing  educational  work  in  north 
India  will  soon  co-operate  with  the  Methodists  in  the 
support  and  administration  of  the  college. 

The  Women’s  The  ^nc  wor^  of  the  Isabella  Thoburn 
Christian  College  College  has  proved  conclusively  that 
of  Madras.  the  girls  of  India  not  only  desire 

college  education,  but  are  also  more  than  able  to 
receive  it,  and  to  make  superb  use  of  it.  But  a 
college  in  the  north  of  the  great  peninsula  of  Hin- 
dustan, however  strong,  cannot  meet  the  needs  of 
the  girls  of  south  India.  It  became  evident  some 
time  ago  that  they,  too,  needed  a college.  But  all 
of  the  missions  working  in  south  India  were  already 
overburdened,  and  none  of  them  could  possibly 
supply  a well-equipped  college,  adequate  for  the 
needs  of  the  women  in,  and  adjacent  to,  the  Madras 
Presidency.  Yet  that  such  a college  was  absolutely 
essential  for  the  development  of  Christian  leadership 
among  the  women  of  south  India  was  very  evident  to 
every  thoughtful  person.  And  gradually  the  idea  of 
the  Women’s  Christian  College  of  Madras  took 
shape  in  the  minds  of  a few  men  and  women  of  clear 
sight  and  daring  faith.  None  of  the  mission  boards 
which  longed  for  this  college  to  which  to  send  the 
promising  girls  from  their  secondary  schools,  could 
promise  large  gifts  for  equipment  or  salaries.  But 
if  enough  of  them  would  agree  to  unite  in  the  sup- 
port of  a college,  this  difficulty  might  be  over- 
come. And  the  beautiful  college  which  stands  in 


212  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

Madras  today  is  a result  of  the  union  of  twelve 
mission  boards.  It  is  not  only  interdenominational, 
but  international,  for  six  of  these  boards  are  in  Great 
Britain,  five  in  the  United  States,  and  one  in 
Canada.  There  is  a Board  of  Control  in  India  which, 
with  the  faculty,  administers  the  affairs  of  the 
college.  In  Great  Britain  is  one  Board  of  Governors 
and  in  America  another,  each  charged  with  the 
responsibility  of  raising  funds  and  securing  professors 
for  the  college. 

The  history  of  the  little  more  than  two  years  of  the 
life  of  the  college  makes  pleasant  and  hope-inspiring 
reading.  In  the  summer  of  1915,  a large,  spacious 
house  was  rented  which  seemed  to  provide  ample 
accommodations  for  all  the  girls  who  would  be  likely 
to  seek  entrance  to  the  college  for  some  time  to  come. 
But  an  entering  class  of  forty  filled  the  building 
almost  to  overflowing,  and  long  before  the  first  year 
had  closed,  it  was  evident  that  a new  home  must  be 
found  before  a second  group  of  girls  sought  admission. 
All  the  available  dormitory  space  was  already  in  use, 
and  the  necessity  of  holding  two  lectures  in  the  same 
room  at  the  same  time  was  leading  students  to  such 
remarkable  conclusions  as  that,  “Socrates  was  too 
good  a man  to  despise  Plato,  although  Plato  was  a 
Scotchman  and  Scotchmen  eat  the  food  of  horses,” 
and  that,  “Plato’s  beloved  disciples  were  Aristotle 
and  Isaac  Newton.” 

_ . The  securing  of  the  new  home  is  a 

Its  new  home.  , ....  ° . r . . . 

thrilling  story.  After  looking  at  sever- 
al unpromising  places,  the  principal  of  the  college, 
Miss  Eleanor  MacDougall,  heard  that  “Doveton 
House”  was  for  sale,  and  early  one  November  morn- 


THE  CALL  FOR  LEADERS 


21 3 

ing  she  and  one  of  the  other  professors  went  to  look 
at  it.  A more  ideal  college  campus  could  scarcely  be 
imagined;  ten  acres  of  grounds  on  the  very  banks  of 
the  Cooum  River,  acres  of  stately  trees  and  velvety 
lawn,  brilliant  with  scarlet  flame  of  the  forest, 
purple  bougainvillea,  golden  portia  and  acacia,  and 
other  vivid  tropical  plants  “unbelievably  often  in 
bloom.”  And  in  the  midst  of  this  riot  of  color  stands 
the  historic  white-pillared  mansion,  Doveton  House, 
built  in  “the  spacious  days  of  the  East  India  Com- 
pany,” the  former  home  of  many  a government 
official,  at  one  time  the  prison  of  the  Gaekwar  of 
Baroda,  once  the  house  of  a native  rajah,  and  latterly 
used  by  Mrs.  Besant  as  a hostel  for  Hindu  students. 
Nothing  could  be  more  ideal  for  the  college  home. 
Miss  MacDougall  and  Miss  Bretherton  decided; 
and  the  price  was  ridiculously  low,  only  $20,000. 
But  it  might  as  well  have  been  $100,000  as  far  as  they 
were  concerned,  they  decided;  for  if  you  haven’t 
$20,000,  what  does  it  matter  how  reasonable  a price 
that  may  be?  To  secure  that  sum  of  money  seemed 
hopeless.  But  that  very  evening,  on  their  return 
from  a drive,  during  which  they  had  wistfully  talked 
of  how  perfectly  the  stately  spacious  rooms  of 
Doveton  House  could  be  adapted  to  the  use  of  a 
college,  they  found  a letter  from  America.  “You 
will  be  as  glad  to  hear  as  I am  to  tell  you,”  it  read, 
“that  our  Board  has  voted  you  $25,000.”  Mrs. 
John  D.  Rockefeller  had  left  the  Women’s  Board  of 
the  American  Baptist  Foreign  Missionary  Society  a 
generous  legacy,  and  the  Board  had  voted  $25,000 
of  it  to  Madras.  “Our  castle  in  the  air  had  solidified 
with  such  suddenness  that  we  could  hardly  believe 
our  eyes,”  said  Miss  MacDougall. 


WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 


214 

In  July,  1916,  the  college  opened  in  its  new 
quarters  with  seventy-two  students,  fifty  of  them 
residents.  The  numbers  are  steadily  increasing,  and 
plans  are  already  under  way  for  a new  residence 
building  for  faculty  and  students,  to  be  erected  on 
the  site  of  the  spacious  stables  of  Doveton  House. 
a tribute  from  It  is  convincing  testimony  to  the 
the  government.  g00d  impression  already  made  by  the 
college  that  the  government  of  India  has  made  an 
exception  to  its  policy  of  withholding  grants-in-aid 
during  the  war,  and  has  promised  the  college  several 
thousand  dollars  toward  its  new  residence  building 
and  the  equipment  of  a science  department.  Twelve 
thousand,  five  hundred  dollars  of  the  remainder  of 
the  money  needed — more  than  half — was  given  by 
the  women  of  Great  Britain,  out  of  the  midst  of 
the  demands  and  agonies  of  war.  The  women  of 
America  have  contributed  the  balance,  #7,500. 
Recognition  ln  December,  1915,  the  Madras  Uni- 
by  Madras  versity  gave  official  recognition  to 

University.  the  Women’s  Christian  College  by 

numbering  it  among  its  affiliated  colleges  and  agreeing 
to  confer  its  degrees  upon  its  graduates.  Such 
recognition  as  this  is  of  paramount  importance  in 
India,  where  universities  alone  are  permitted  to 
confer  degrees.  The  course  of  study  required  of  the 
students  of  the  college  by  the  Madras  University  is 
four  years  in  length,  and  the  subjects  offered  are 
very  similar  to  those  studied  in  women’s  colleges  in 
this  country. 

„ The  descriptions  of  the  college  life, 

College  life.  , r u ri  a 

too,  sound  very  much  like  an  Ameri- 
can college.  Literary  and  debating  clubs,  and  musi- 


THE  CALL  FOR  LEADERS 


215 

cal  and  dramatic  societies  are  proving  that  these 
gentle,  quiet  girls  of  India  can  plan  programs  and 
present  plays  with  quite  as  much  skill  as  their 
more  experienced  college  sisters  of  America.  Reports 
of  the  debates  indicate  that  all  thought  of  timidity  is 
lost  in  the  heat  of  argument;  and  their  professors 
say  that  “acting  is  most  certainly  the  strong  point 
of  these  Indian  girls.  They  are  clever  mimics  and 
their  high-strung  temperaments  give  them  an  emo- 
tional power  and  a self-abandon  which  the  more 
reserved  Anglo-Saxon  lacks.”  Not  only  several  of 
Tagore’s  dramas,  but  some  of  the  scenes  of  “Mac- 
beth,” “The  Merchant  of  Venice,”  etc.,  have  been 
presented  to  admiring  audiences  by  the  girls  of  the 
Madras  College.  College  committees,  too,  are  prov- 
ing the  initiative,  and  developing  the  powers  of 
leadership  of  these  girls.  A general  college  committee 
assigns  various  responsibilities,  appointing  girls  to 
attend  to  the  bells,  lights,  news  bulletin,  sundry 
class  duties,  etc.;  a gardening  committee  is  respon- 
sible for  making  the  beautiful  grounds  of  Doveton 
House  even  more  luxuriant;  an  excursion  committee 
plans  and  conducts  trips  to  various  places  of  in- 
terest; a games  committee  keeps  the  naturally 
unathletic  girls  of  India  busy  at  badminton,  tennis, 
dodge  bail,  and  other  sports;  and  an  editorial  com- 
mittee brings  out  a most  attractive  and  ably  edited 
magazine  known  as  The  Sunflower. 

The  students.  The  great  majorit7  o(  thc  coIlcge 
students  are  Christians,  though  there 

are  some  Hindus  among  them.  The  classes  in  religion, 

the  daily  chapel  services,  the  influence  of  the  strong 

Christia:  teachers,  and  the  Young  Women’s  Chris- 


2l6 


WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 


tian  Association;  all  these  make  the  college  a training 
place  not  alone  for  leadership,  but  for  Christian 
leadership.  The  influence  it  will  exert  on  women’s 
life  in  south  India  is  beyond  measure. 

The  North  China  The  first  school  for  girls  to  offer  work 
Union  College  of  of  college  rank  in  China  is  the  North 
Peking  China  Union  College  of  Peking.  As 

the  Isabella  Thoburn  College  of  India  did  not  spring, 
full-fledged,  into  being  as  a college,  but  developed 
from  a school  for  small  girls;  so  the  North  China 
Union  College  grew  out  of  the  school  opened  for  little 
girls  by  Mrs.  Bridgman,  a Congregational.,  mission- 
ary, as  long  ago  as  1864.  Little  by  little  the  school 
grew,  until  in  1904  the  institution  hitherto  supported 
wholly  by  the  Congregational  women,  which  was 
then  known  as  the  Bridgman  Academy,  was  merged 
into  a union  women’s  college,  supported  by  Ameri- 
can Congregationalists,  Methodists,  and  Presby- 
terians, and  the  London  Missionary  Society  of 
Great  Britain.  Steadily  increasing  numbers  of  girls 
are  seeking  entrance  to  this  college,  and  its  graduates 
are  already  proving  the  value  of  the  thorough 
training  it  offers. 

..  „ „ But,  as  the  Isabella  Thoburn  College 

mg  o ege.  jncjja  could  not  be  expected 

to  meet  the  needs  of  the  entire  peninsula  of  Hindu- 
stan, neither  could  a college  in  Peking  be  deemed 
sufficient  for  the  girls  of  all  China.  At  almost  ex- 
actly the  same  time  that  the  Women’s  Christian 
College  of  Madras  was  welcoming  its  first  students, 
a sister  college  in  China  was  throwing  open  its 
picturesque  circular  doorway  to  its  first  entering 
class.  “In  the  great  valley  of  the  Yangtse,  from  the 


WORK  AND  PLAY  IN  THE  MADRAS  WOMEN’S  COLLEGE 


THE  CALL  FOR  LEADERS 


217 

sea  up  to  the  borders  of  Szechuan,  and  north  and 
south  for  several  hundred  miles,  there  was  no  place 
where  a girl  had  a chance  to  do  real  college  work  and 
get  the  training  which  would  fit  her  for  leadership 
among  her  own  people.  . . . The  situation  was  as  if 
in  the  United  States,  east  of  the  Rockies,  there  were 
one  college  for  women.”  And  the  Yangtse  Valley 
region  has  a larger  number  of  fully  developed  high 
schools  for  girls  than  any  other  part  of  China! 
Hence  it  was  that  in  November,  1913,  the  women  of 
five  American  denominations,  the  Baptist,  Christian, 
Presbyterian,  Methodist  North  and  South,  pledged 
themselves  to  the  support  of  a college  for  women, 
to  be  located  in  China’s  old  capital  and  educational 
center,  Nanking. 

The  first  home  of  Ginling  College, 
as  the  new  college  is  named,  is  a 
fine  old  Chinese  gung  gwan , a spacious  official 
residence  built  by  the  Li  Hung  Chang  family,  which 
makes  an  excellent  home  for  a small  college,  with  its 
tiers  of  rooms,  sunny  court  yards,  picturesque  pool, 
and  beautiful  rose  arbor.  Before  long,  however,  the 
growth  of  the  college  will  make  necessary  the  pur- 
chase of  a permanent  and  more  ample  college  home. 

its  growth  The  ^rst  year  Ginling  College  was 

truly  one  of  small  beginnings,  for  the 
entrance  requirements  were  very  high,  and  only  a 
few  girls  were  ready  to  meet  them.  The  little  group 
of  eight  girls  who  met  for  the  opening  chapel  exer- 
cises on  the  morning  of  September  17,  1915,  seemed 
small,  indeed.  But  the  faculty  of  Ginling  remem- 
bered that  Smith  College  had  opened  with  only 
fourteen  students,  and  were  not  discouraged.  At  the 


Its  home. 


218 


WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 


Its  life. 


beginning  of  the  term  this  year,  thirty-five  girls 
gathered  for  the  opening  chapel  exercises,  six  juniors, 
nine  sophomores,  twenty  freshmen,  the  latter  repre- 
senting eight  provinces,  sixteen  preparatory  schools, 
and  ten  denominations. 

The  four  years’  course  offered  in 
Ginling  gives  the  equivalent  of  the 
work  offered  in  our  American  colleges  for  women. 
The  description  of  the  courses  offered  in  art,  science, 
economics  and  sociology,  education,  literature, 
history,  mathematics,  philosophy,  religion,  etc.,  has 
a very  familiar  ring.  And  Ginling,  like  Madras,  is 
giving  its  students  other  training  for  leadership  than 
that  contained  in  books.  A Student  Government 
Council,  consisting  of  the  presidents  of  the  classes 
plus  two  other  members  of  each  of  the  two  upper 
classes,  is  responsible  for  the  making  and  execution 
of  the  rules  governing  the  college  life.  Every  girl  in 
the  school  belongs  to  the  Young  Women’s  Christian 
Association,  which  is  a highly  active  organization. 
In  the  first  year  of  the  college’s  life  it  opened  a 
Sunday  school  of  little  “raggedys”  in  the  neighbor- 
hood, which  has  now  grown  to  a membership  of  over 
sixty.  But  the  girls  did  not  stop  there.  They  se- 
cured the  permission  of  the  faculty  to  start  a little 
day  school,  also,  and  this  little  day  school  meets 
every  afternoon,  and  is  financed  and  conducted 
wholly  by  the  students. 

The  Ginling  College  faculty  believe 
ts  purpose.  that:  “The  thoroughly  trained  Chinese 
woman  can  do  more  in  China  than  any  foreigner  in 
every  line  of  work.  The  ultimate  success  of  the 
Christian  movement  in  China  depends  on  tho 


THE  CALL  FOR  LEADERS 


219 

Christian  leadership  of  women.  It  is  not  enough  to 
train  men  as  leaders.  As  the  woman  is,  the  home  will 
be;  as  the  home,  so  the  nation — heathen  or  Christian. 
The  great  crying  need  is  for  Chinese  women  able  to 
take  the  lead  in  all  the  work  of  the  church.  Those 
who  have  come  out  as  leaders  would  be  the  first  to 
admit  that  with  better  training  they  could  better 
meet  the  present  opportunity  to  present  the  gospel 
to  women  of  the  scholar  class  who  are  showing 
interest,  as  the  men  of  that  class  are,  in  the  religion 
of  Jesus  Christ.  In  cur  schools  we  certainly  need 
more  women  teachers,  and  teachers  with  some 
knowledge  in  reserve  to  make  their  teaching  a living 
and  a vitalizing  force.  College  training  will  no  more 
spoil  Chinese  girls  for  home  life  than  it  spoils  Ameri- 
can girls.  If  there  is  created  a discontent  with 
homes  as  they  are,  it  may  have  that  divine  element 
in  it  which  works  for  the  uplift  of  the  home  as  for  all 
spheres  of  life.” 

That  educated  Chinese  women  agree 

with  the  Ginling  faculty  in  believing 
that  such  a college  will  do  much  toward  furnishing 
this  needed  Christian  leadership  for  Chinese  women, 
is  shown  by  a letter  written  by  the  Chinese  women 
students  in  America,  and  received  by  Mrs.  Lawrence 
Thurston,  the  president  of  Ginling,  on  the  Sunday 
before  college  opened. 

Dear  Madam  President: 

On  behalf  of  the  Chinese  women  students  of  the  United 
States,  we  want  to  express  our  hearty  congratulations  and 
sincere  wishes  for  the  work  initiated  in  the  Woman’s  College  in 
Nanking. 

We  feel  as  you  do,  that  the  most  essential  need  in  China  is 


220 


WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 


the  education  of  her  women,  and  also  believe  that  unless  the 
education  is  solely  crystallized  on  a Christian  foundation,  it  will 
do  more  harm  to  China  than  good.  A personal  knowledge  of 
Jesus  Christ  is  the  great  need  of  the  women  of  all  lands. 

We  do  highly  appreciate  the  efforts  made  by  the  members 
of  your  Board  to  enable  this  institution  to  be  a great  success, 
and  shall  be  very  glad  to  encourage  our  friends  and  relatives  to 
use  this  rare  opportunity  for  the  education  of  their  girls. 

We  sincerely  hope  that  there  will  be  many  Christian  leaders 
among  women  produced  and  multiplied  through  this  institution: 
and  may  the  darkness  of  many  Chinese  women  be  swept  away 
by  the  light  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  is  the  light  of  the 
world. 

We  can  assure  you  of  our  deep  interest  in  the  work  you  are 
undertaking  for  our  sisters  in  China,  and  we  have  asked  Miss 
Mali  Lee  to  be  our  personal  representative,  to  present  to  you 
and  to  the  students  of  the  Union  Woman’s  College  our  personal 
greetings. 

With  heartiest  good  wishes. 

Cordially  yours. 

Hie  Ding  Ling. 

Another  Two  colleges  for  the  women  of  all 

beginning.  China  in  these  days  of  eagerness  for 

education!  Surely  this  is  a small  beginning,  but  a 
beginning  has  been  made,  and  that  is  something. 
And  down  in  the  far  south  of  China  another  beginning 
is  being  made,  which  may  bear  much  fruit  in  the 
years  ahead.  For  many  years  the  Canton  Christian 
College  has  been  offering  a splendidly  thorough 
Christian  education  to  the  men  of  south  China. 
The  eager  petitions  of  a number  of  girls  to  be  ad- 
mitted to  the  college  have  convinced  the  College 
Board  that  there  is  a real  need  and  demand  for 
higher  education  for  the  women,  also;  and  plans  for 
the  development  of  a women’s  department  of  the 
Canton  Christian  College  are  already  under  way, 


THE  CALL  FOR  LEADERS 


221 


though  but  two  girls  are  as  yet  doing  actual  college 
work. 

The  Women’s  The  Women’s  Christian  College  of 
Christian  College  Tokyo,  Japan,  will  open  April  1,1918. 

The  college  will  meet  an  urgent  de- 
mand for  higher  education  on  the  part  of  many  girls, 
and  a large  entering  class  is  expected.  The  Board  of 
Trustees  is  to  be  congratulated  that  it  has  secured 
as  president  of  the  college,  Dr.  Inazo  Nitobe,  an 
eminent  educator  and  author.  The  dean  of  the 
college  is  Miss  Yasui,who  has  resigned  her  position 
in  the  government  Women’s  Higher  Normal  School 
to  render  this  service  to  the  first  union  Christian  col- 
lege for  women  in  Japan.  The  Board  is  appointed 
by  the  several  missions  in  Japan,  and  the  support 
will  be  provided  by  the  boards  in  America  and  friends 
in  Japan. 

The  responsibil-  The  importance  of  the  development 
ity  of  success.  Qf  these  Christian  colleges  for  women, 

and  the  establishment  of  additional  ones  in  the  not 
too  distant  future,  can  scarcely  be  overstated.  Some- 
one has  stated  the  claim  of  these  colleges  upon  us 
with  convincing  clearness. 

“It  is  not  a simple  matter  for  boards  already  over- 
burdened with  financial  needs  of  existing  institutions 
to  start  out  with  faith  to  establish  these  higher 
institutions  for  women.  Yet  it  is  the  value  of  the 
work  that  these  boards  have  already  done  that  makes 
such  institutions  necessary.  Our  great  chain  of 
girls’  schools  around  the  world  now  demands  the 
next  step,  the  women’s  college.  In  order  to  make 
efficient  institutions,  worthy  of  support  and  respect, 
large  sums  of  money  will  be  required,  a group  of  ex- 


222 


WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 


perienced  teachers  of  the  highest  grade  must  be 
enlisted.  We  are  facing  a crisis  in  our  women’s 
missionary  work.  If  we  stop  now  we  shall  put  into 
the  hands  of  irreligious  governments  the  direction  of 
the  education  of  the  girls  whom  we  have  brought  to 
this  day.  Our  very  success  means  responsibility  for 
the  future.  Only  as  we  maintain  colleges  of  high 
grade,  and  with  a strong  Christian  influence,  can 
we  hold  what  we  have  gained  for  the  Kingdom  of 
God.” 


Medical  schools. 


In  addition  to  the  colleges,  training 
schools  for  the  special  lines  of  service 
for  which  Oriental  women  are  so  much  needed  today 
must  be  provided,  especially  teacher-training  schools, 
medical  and  nurses’  training  schools,  and  schools  for 
training  in  religious  work.  Such  schools  as  the 
Women’s  Christian  Medical  College  at  Ludhiana, 
the  Women’s  Union  Medical  College  of  north  China, 
and  the  Hackett  Medical  College  for  women  in 
Canton,  the  work  of  all  of  which  has  already  been 
mentioned  in  Chapter  IV,  have  done  splendid  pioneer 
service. 


The  strength  of  Full  of  hope  for  the  future  is  the 
union-  policy  of  mission  boards  to  unite 

their  forces  in  building  up  strong  medical  education 
for  women.  Together  we  can  do  what  would  be  im- 
possible for  any  one  of  us  alone.  And  the  fine  spirit 
of  co-operation  and  harmony  which  characterizes 
all  the  united  work  which  is  already  being  carried  on, 
is  a splendid  tribute  to  the  breadth  of  vision  and 
depth  of  purpose  of  these  boards  and  their  mission- 
aries. 


THE  CALL  FOR  LEADERS  22J 

Open  doors  for  Never  were  there  such  open  doors 
the  Good  News.  for  the  telling  of  the  Good  News  as 
there  are  among  the  women  of  the  Orient  today.  For 
one  thing,  they  are  far  easier  of  access  than  they 
were  even  five  years  ago.  The  doors  of  homes  long 
closed  are  flung  wide  open;  and  women  who  can 
tell  the  Story  are  made  heartily  welcome  within 
them.  More  than  that,  women  are  coming  out  from 
those  doors,  attending  lectures,  forming  organiza- 
tions, holding  meetings,  joining  with  Christian  women 
in  social  service.  Barriers  which  made  it  hard  for  the 
Christian  woman,  with  her  message  of  hope  and 
strength,  to  get  to  the  non-Christian  woman,  are 
breaking  down  with  almost  incredible  rapidity. 
There  is  no  need  for  the  Christian  woman  to  seek  a 
way  of  approach  to  the  woman  who  is  working  beside 
her  in  a Social  Service  League  or  Red  Cross  chapter. 
What  is  more  natural  than  that  she  should  speak  of 
the  One  whose  spirit  has  ever  inspired  such  work  as 
that?  But  more  than  that;  the  non-Christian  woman 
is  ready  to  hear.  New  knowledge,  new  experiences, 
new  interests,  new  ideals  and  purposes  are  flinging 
wide  the  doors  of  mind  and  heart.  Never  were  the 
women  of  the  world  so  one  in  a common  experience 
of  suffering,  a common  longing  for  strength  and 
comfort,  as  today.  Never  were  lives  so  open  to  the 
Prince  of  Peace. 

An  army  of  Bible  Such  opportunities  as  these  call  for 
women  needed.  a host  Qf  Oriental  Christian  women, 
skilled  in  making  the  Good  News  clear  to  women  of 
many  kinds.  “We  need  to  train  an  army  of  Bible 
women,”  says  one  missionary.  “Union  Bible  schools 
for  women  should  be  established  in  every  province, 


WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 


224 

or  in  every  important  centre.”  And  these  schools, 
she  goes  on  to  say,  must  do  more  thorough  and  more 
advanced  work  than  most  Bible  women’s  training 
schools  have  considered  necessary  in  the  past,  “for 
the  demands  now  made  upon  a Bible  woman  are 
very  different  from  those  of  former  years.”  New 
opportunities  inevitably  bring  new  demands  and  new 
requirements,  and  the  Bible  women  of  today  and 
tomorrow  must  have  not  only  the  desire  to  share  the 
glad  tidings,  but  the  training  which  will  enable  them 
to  adapt  the  message  to  the  understanding  of  many 
types  of  hearers,  to  be  able  to  answer  many  different 
kinds  of  questions,  to  appeal  to  the  minds  as  well  as 
the  hearts  of  the  newly  awakened  women  of  the  East. 
The  challenge  of  The  future  centuries  of  the  Orient’s 
this  hour.  life  wjU}  jn  no  smaq  measure,  be 

shaped  by  the  women  and  girls  of  today,  the  mothers, 
the  teachers,  of  the  leaders  of  tomorrow.  And  the 
life  of  the  girls  and  women  of  today  is  as  clay,  soft 
in  the  hands  of  the  potter.  Old  things  are  passed 
away,  the  shape  of  the  new  is  not  yet  determined. 
Who  shall  determine  it?  Shall  the  forces  of  material- 
ism and  selfishness,  or  those  of  Christ?  The  answer 
rests  with  those  who,  in  these  days  of  change  and 
confusion,  shall  be  the  leaders  of  the  newly  awakened 
women  of  the  Orient. 

Yes,  but  who  will  determine  who 
these  leaders  shall  be?  Neither  we, 
nor  our  missionaries,  nor  any  other  Western  women, 
can  take  the  place  of  Oriental  women  in  this  task  of 
leadership.  But  we  can  do  an  even  greater  thing.  We 
can  help  to  raise  up  the  leaders.  We  can  help  to 
determine  the  character  of  the  leadership.  Not  the 


Our  part. 


FUTURE  LEADERS  OF  CHINA  IN  GINLING’S  COURTYARD 


THE  CALL  FOR  LEADERS  225 

men  of  the  Orient,  not  the  women  of  the  Oc- 
cident, can  guide  the  hosts  of  groping  women  of  the 
East  today.  Only  educated  Christian  women  from 
among  themselves  can  lead  aright  at  this  time.  But 
we  can  give  such  leaders  to  the  Orient.  It  is  in 
our  power  to  develop,  in  this  day  of  days,  Oriental 
women  trained  to  lead,  and  to  lead  Christward. 
Never  since  Christian  missions  began  has  there  been 
a challenge  like  that  of  this  hour!  If  we  would  meet 
it,  we  cannot  delay.  The  softness  of  clay  is  a passing 
thing.  Forces  are  being  brought  to  bear  on  it  daily. 
If  the  forces  of  the  Lord  of  Love  are  to  be  dominant, 
then  must  we  press  on  to  greater  work  and  stronger 
for  the  women  of  the  East. 

The  war  and  our  A call  to  advance!  We  have  heard 
task-  other  calls  in  other  years,  and,  though 

none  of  them  have  equalled  this  in  urgency  and  in 
the  magnitude  of  the  issues  involved,  they  have  not 
been  unheeded.  But,  many  will  say,  this  is  wartime. 
Surely  our  supreme  task  now , to  which  all  else  must 
be  subordinated,  is  to  win  this  war.  If  Prussianism 
were  to  conquer,  Prussianism  which  someone  has 
well  said  “designates  not  simply  a geographical 
territory,  but  a disposition,  a disposition  which  is 
found  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  and  from  which  the 
world  must  be  utterly  purified,  the  disposition  of  the 
strong  to  override  the  weak” — if  Prussianism  were  to 
triumph,  surely  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  would  be  immeasurably  postponed  not  in  one 
part  of  the  world,  but  in  every  part.  Surely,  those 
laymen  were  right  who  in  issuing  a call  to  their 
denomination  for  1918,  stated,  “We  have  no  higher 
duty, — one  might  almost  say  no  other  duty — than  to 


22 6 WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

win  this  war,  and  to  achieve  the  ends  for  which  we 
are  engaged  in  it.” 

“To  win  this  war  and  achieve  the  ends  for  which  we 
are  engaged  in  it."  Those  last  ten  words  help  to 
make  it  clear  that  there  are  no  conflicting  claims 
upon  us  at  a time  like  this.  We  are  willing  to  pay 
the  terrific  cost  of  this  war,  to  offer,  without  reserve, 
the  gift  of  our  men  and  the  lesser  gift  of  our  money, 
because  the  ends  for  which  we  are  engaged  in  it,  at 
the  cost  of  bloodshed  and  suffering  immeasurable, 
have  been  rightly  summed  up  as  the  making  possible 
of  “a  world  wherein  all  men  everywhere  shall  see  in 
God  their  Father,  and  in  all  men  of  every  class  and 
every  race  their  brothers.”  This  is  the  aim  of  our 
warfare.  Could  there  be  any  more  concise,  any  more 
accurate  definition  of  the  aim  of  the  foreign  mis- 
sionary enterprise?  We  must  seek  the  accomplish- 
ment of  that  aim  today  at  the  cost  of  the  destruction 
of  human  life  on  the  battlefields  of  Europe.  God 
help  us,  in  a situation  such  as  this,  we  can  do  no  other. 
We  must  also  seek  the  accomplishment  of  this  aim 
today  through  the  constructive  building  up  of  life, 
abundant  life,  in  the  shadowed  lands  of  Asia.  Thank 
God,  this,  too,  will  help  to  bring  about  the  ends  for 
which  we  are  engaged  in  war.  To  neglect,  in  the 
compulsion  that  is  upon  us  to  attain  the  goal  for 
which  we  strive  through  battle  and  sudden  death, 
the  equally  great  compulsion  to  seek  that  goal 
through  service  in  the  name  of  the  constraininglove  of 
Christ,  would  be  to  win  victory  at  one  point,  only  to 
forfeit  the  cause  through  the  loss  of  it  at  another. 
“This  ought  ye  to  have  done,  and  not  to  have  left  the 
other  undone.” 


THE  CALL  TOR  LEADERS  ITJ 

“The  fight  for  a spiritual  view  of  the  world,”  says 
Mr.  J.  H.  Oldham,  “for  justice  and  fair-dealing,  for 
the  protection  of  the  weak  and  the  redemption  of 
childhood,  for  the  establishment  of  good-will  and 
brotherhood,  takes  many  forms  and  must  be  waged 
on  many  fronts,  but  it  is  the  same  fight.  We  cannot 
retire  from  the  field  in  any  part  of  the  world  without 
being  weaker  at  every  point.  The  task  must  be 
accepted  as  a whole.  To  confess  that  it  is  too  great  is 
to  surrender  something  of  that  confidence  in  the 
universal  validity  of  the  principles  for  which  we 
contend,  something  of  that  triumphant  faith  in  the 
possession  of  invincible  truth,  which  are  necessary 
for  success  in  the  particular  work  we  have  in  hand. 
Christianity  can  conquer  by  nothing  less  than  its 
whole  magnitude.” 

The  word  sacrifice  holds  new  depths  of  meaning 
for  us  in  1918.  The  word  giving  has  new  content  for 
us.  Things  which  in  brighter  years  seemed  essential 
to  our  happiness  and  comfort  we  yield  unquestion- 
ingly  in  answer  to  our  country’s  call,  and  scorn  to 
call  it  sacrifice.  This  we  cannot  but  do.  But  so  far 
from  being  tempted  to  leave  the  other  undone,  we 
shall  but  learn  new  ways  of  giving,  new  possibilities 
of  sacrifice,  in  answer  to  our  Master’s  call  to  us  “for 
their  sakes.”  The  great  missionary  movements  of 
the  world  have  been  born  in  the  midst  of  the  pain 
and  desolation  of  war.  Nations  that  have  been 
bearing  the  heat  of  this  conflict  longer  than  we,  have 
not  retrenched,  but  advanced,  on  the  mission  field. 
A great  government,  it  is  said,  has  urged  its  mission 
boards  not  to  fall  back  in  the  stress  of  this  colossal 
conflict,  but  to  hold  fast  and  press  onward,  that 


228  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

when  the  war  is  over,  and  the  rebuilding  of  the  world 
begins,  the  advantage  of  ground  gained  in  Europe 
be  not  swallowed  up  by  the  loss  of  ground  in  Christ’s 
cause  in  Asia  or  Africa.  “The  world’s  to  build  anew” 
— not  Europe,  nor  America,  nor  Asia,  but  the  world ! 

“Long  years  ago,  when  the  world  was  just  be- 
ginning to  be,  there  was  a kingdom  which  was  not 
yet  finished.”  And  the  king,  as  he  beheld  it,  was 
troubled,  “for  everywhere  that  he  looked  there 
were  loose  ends  and  rough  edges,  and  shapeless 
things  waiting  to  be  fashioned  and  it  was  so  all  over 
his  kingdom.  There  was  such  a great  lot  to  do  that 
he  could  not  possibly  do  it  all  alone — no  king  how- 
ever industrious  could  have  done  it  all,  and  he  longed 
for  the  help  of  his  subjects.  . . . ‘Summon  me  my 
hundred  heralds!’  the  king  suddenly  bade  his  ser- 
vants. ‘Hundred  heralds,’  said  the  king.  ‘I  would 
that  you  go  out  into  my  kingdom,  into  its  highways 
and  even  to  its  loneliest  outposts,  and  take  my 
people  my  message.  Cry  to  them  until  each  one 
hears  with  his  heart  as  well  as  his  head:  “The  world  is 
beginning.  You  must  go  and  help  the  king!"  ’ ”* 

The  rebuilding  of  the  world  is  beginning!  We 
must  go  and  help  the  King! 


Zona  Gale,  The  King’s  Trumpeter. 


THE  CALL  FOR  LEADERS 


229 


QUESTIONS  ON  CHAPTER  VI. 

Aim  of  study:  To  realize  the  urgent  need  of  the  women  of  the 
Orient  for  leaders,  and  to  see  our  relation  to  that  need. 

1.  What  facts  brought  out  in  the  preceding  chapters  seem  to 
you  to  warrant  the  statement  that  the  women  of  the  Orient 
“are  athirst  for  leaders”? 

2.  Do  you  agree  with  the  statement  that  the  men  of  the 
Orient  cannot  furnish  the  leadership  required  by  the  women 
today?  If  so,  why? 

3.  Do  you  agree  with  the  conclusion  that  the  women  of  the 
Occident  cannot  themselves  be  the  needed  leaders  among 
Oriental  women  today?  If  so,  why? 

4.  Does  this  demand  for  leadership,  then,  have  any  bearing 
upon  our  plans  and  efforts  as  members  of  women’s  foreign  mis- 
sionary societies?  If  so,  what?  And  why? 

5.  If  you  had  $100, ooo  to  invest  in  Christian  educational 
work  in  the  Orient  in  1918,  what  proportion  would  you  give  to 
kindergartens,  to  girls’  high  schools,  to  women’s  colleges,  to 
women’s  medical  schools,  and  to  schools  for  training  women  in 
religious  work? 

6.  What  reasons  would  you  give  in  support  of  such  a division  ? 

7.  If  this  sum  could  not  be  divided,  but  must  all  be  given  to 
one  school,  what  school  would  you  choose,  and  why? 

8.  What  arguments  would  you  use  to  a woman  who  felt  that 
your  denomination  should  develop  a women’s  college  of  its  own, 
rather  than  join  with  other  boards  in  a union  college? 

9.  What  conditions  in  Asia  make  the  need  for  thoroughly 
trained  women  physicians  so  acute? 

10.  What  conditions  in  the  East  today  call  for  a great  addition 
to  the  numbers  of  Oriental  women  who  can  give  the  Good  News 
to  their  countrywomen? 

11.  Why  is  it  necessary  to  give  some  of  them  so  much  more 
thorough  education  and  training  than  most  of  the  Bible  women 
of  the  past  have  had? 


23O  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

12.  How  would  you  sum  up  the  challenge  which  the  present 
situation  among  the  women  of  the  Orient  makes  to  the  Christian 
women  of  the  Occident? 

13.  Can  you  think  of  any  previous  situation  which  could  be 
compared  to  this  one  in  the  greatness,  the  extent,  or  the  im- 
portance for  future  centuries  of  the  opportunities  it  has  offered 
the  Church  of  Christ? 

1 4.  Why  is  it  that  the  present  situation  can  admit  of  no  delay? 

15.  What  answer  would  you  make  to  those  who  would  advise 
the  postponement  of  our  foreign  missionary  work  until  peace 
has  been  declared,  and  all  the  needs  created  by  the  war  have 
been  met? 


A BRIEF  READING  LIST 


The  East  in  General 

The  Child  in  the  Midst , Labaree  (Central  Committee  on  United 
Study  of  Foreign  Missions,  West  Medford,  Mass.)  $0.30. 

Western  Women  in  Eastern  Lands , Montgomery  (Macmillan) 
30.30. 

The  Kings  Highway,  Montgomery  (Central  Committee  on 
United  Study  of  Foreign  Missions,  West  Medford,  Mass.)  30.30. 
Overtaking  the  Centuries , Paddock  (The  Woman’s  Press)  30.40. 

Moslem  Countries 

Our  Moslem  Sisters,  Van  Sommer  (Fleming  H.  Revell  Co.) 

31.25. 

Daylight  in  the  Harem,  Van  Sommer  and  Others  (Fleming  H. 
Revell  Co.)  3I-25- 


India 

As  It  is  Today  in  India,  Fleming  (Woman’s  Board  of  Foreign 
Missions,  156  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York)  30.03. 

The  Education  of  Women  of  India,  Cowan  (Fleming  H.  Revell 
Co.)  31*25. 

Pandita  Ramabai,  Dyer  (Fleming  H.  Revell  Co.)  31.25. 

Lilaoati  Singh , Nichols  (Woman’s  Foreign  Missionary  So- 
ciety of  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  581  Boylston  St.,  Boston, 
M ass.)  30.30. 


China 

The  Changing  Chinese,  Ross  (The  Century  Co.)  32.40. 

China,  an  Interpretation , Bashford,  Chapter  V (The  Abingdon 
Press)  32.50. 

Shanghai  Sketches,  Ward  (The  Woman’s  Press,  600  Lexington 
Avenue,  New  York)  30.30. 

The  Gateway  to  China,  Gamewell,  Chapter  XIV  (Fleming  H. 
Revell  Co.)  31.50. 


232  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 

The  Education  of  Women  in  China , Burton  (Fleming  H.  Revell 
Co.)  $1.25. 

Notable  Women  of  Modem  China , Burton  (Fleming  H.  Revell 
Co.)  £1.25. 


Japan 

Japanese  Girls  and  Women , Bacon  (Houghton  Mifflin)  $0.75. 

The  Education  of  Women  in  Japan,  Burton  (Fleming  H.  Revell 
Co.)  $1.25. 

The  Working  Women  of  Japan,  Gulick  (The  Missionary 
Education  Movement)  $0.50. 

Investigation  of  Factory  Conditions  in  Japan,  Allan  (Woman’s 
Missionary  Society  of  the  Methodist  Church,  Wesley  Buildings, 
Toronto,  Canada)  $0.05. 

Japan  Today , Emerson  (The  Woman’s  Press)  $0.25. 

Many  of  the  Women’s  Foreign  Mission  Boards  will  provide 
supplementary  leaflets  and  pamphlets  to  accompany  our  study 
books. 


INDEX 


Accidents,  52-53,  60 
Anti  Foot-binding  Society  formed 
by  Chinese  women,  188-190 
Armenian  women,  15 
Arrests  of  Japanese  girls,  65 

Babies,  care  of,  by  Moslem  women, 

n 

Baking,  in  public  ovens,  13;  see 
Cooking 

Banker,  woman,  128-129,  I3° 
Bashford,  Mrs.,  quoted,  157 
Bible  woman,  influence  upon 
Oriental  home,  37,  163 
Bible  women,  223-224 
Bonnell,  Miss  Cornelia,  and  the 
“ Door  of  Hope,”  165-166 
Brewster,  Dr.,  quoted,  53 
Broadening  horizons,  81-120;  and 
Christian  missions,  118-119 
Bullard,  Miss,  reformation  of 
“Red  Thieves  Tribe,”  164-165 
Business,  Moslem  women  in,  125- 
126;  Indian  women  in,  127; 
Chinese  women  in,  127-129; 
Japanese  women  in,  129-130 

Canton  Christian  College,  220-221 
Carleton,  Dr.  Mary,  quoted,  113 
Carter,  E.  C.,  quoted,  92 
Changes,  see  Industrial  changes, 
Social  changes 

Changsha,  Social  Service  League 
of,  and  its  work,  192-197 
Character  shaping,  207-208 
Child  labor  in  China,  51-53 
Children,  care  of,  21-22,  195; 

helped  by  the  Ikuji  society,  201 
China,  washing  clothes  in,  20; 
economy  in  utilizing  fur,  24; 
slave  girls  in,  24;  a Christian 


home  in,  26;  the  coolie  woman 
of,  42-43;  machinery  in,  49-54; 
old  and  new  wedding  customs 
in,  iio-iii;  educated  leaders 
needed  in,  114;  educational 
renaissance  in,  137-140;  wom- 
en’s societies  in,  192 
Chinese  men,  new  attitude  of, 
110-112;  provide  instruction  for 
their  wives,  1 11-1 12 
Chinese  Revolution,  185-188 
Chinese  woman,  home  of,  19; 
cooking  and  sewing,  20;  care  of 
children,  21-22;  field  work,  22- 
23,  24;  her  home  industries, 
24-25 ; opinions  u pon,  25 ; ability 
of,  25-26;  tribute  to  Christian 
wife,  26-27;  disciplined  mother, 
love  of  a,  27;  addresses  attend- 
ants at  funeral  of  her  child, 
27-28;  why  inefficient  as  home- 
maker, 28;  of  leisure,  32;  a 
banker,  128-129;  as  social  work- 
er, 162 

Chinese  women,  establishment  of 
a new  social  order  for,  110-114; 
new  longings,  112-113;  craving 
for  education,  113;  new  dangers, 
1 1 3—1 14;  new  opportunities,  114; 
Christ  a power  in  the  uplift  of, 
1 14;  in  business,  127-129;  edi- 
tors, 148-149;  physicians,  156- 
158;  part  of,  in  the  Chinese 
Revolution,  185-188;  hold  pub- 
lic meetings  in  favor  of  re- 
forms, 188-191 

Christ,  power  of,  in  the  uplift  of 
women,  114 

Christian  converts  own  model 
factories  in  Japan,  68-70 
Christian  education  necessary  for 
development  of  leaders,  208-210 


234 


WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 


Christian  factory  is  Christianizing 
a district  in  Japan,  70 
Christian  influence,  doors  opened 
by  world  war,  108-110 
Christian  leadership,  207 
Christian  missions,  and  Oriental 
home,  35-37;  and  women’s  in- 
dustries, 76—77;  and  broadening 
horizons,  118-119 
Christian  schools  chief  source  of 
supply  for  women  teachers,  139 
Christian  social  experiments,  two, 
164-166 

Christians,  should  furnish  leaders 
to  Oriental  nations,  1 19;  women 
medical  students  are,  154 
Christianity  the  only  safe  guide  of 
the  Japanese  woman,  117 
Clubs,  women’s,  180-185 
College,  Constantinople,  210; 
Isabella  T h o b u r n,  210-211; 
Women’s  Christian,  of  Madras, 
211-216;  North  China  Union 
College  of  Peking,  216;  Ginling, 
216-220;  Canton  Christian,  220- 
221;  Women’s  Christian,  of 
Tokyo,  221 

Colleges,  Christian,  for  women, 
responsibility  of  success,  221- 
222;  union,  of  great  value,  209- 
210 

Concubinage,  191 
Constantinople  College,  210 
Cooking,  12,  20,  see  Baking 
Coolie  labor  of  Indian  women,  16 
Co-operation  between  women, 
169-205 

Coppock,  Miss,  quoted,  198-199 
Cotton,  reeling,  an  industry  for 
women,  16;  spinning  and  weav- 
ing, a home  industry  for  Chinese 
women,  24;  weaving  in  Japan, 
30;  weaving  in  China,  49-50 
Cotton  mill  in  Bombay,  47-48 
Courage  of  Indian  woman,  103-105 
Cowan,  Miss  Minna,  quoted,  94, 
I3S 


Death  rate  abnormally  high  in 
Japanese  factories,  63 
de  Selincourt,  Miss  Agnes,  quoted, 

93-94 

Disease,  factory  dormitory  a 
breeding  place  of,  61-62;  com- 
batted by  a Chinese  society  in 
Changsha,  193-194 
Diseases,  in  Japanese  factories,  63 
“ Door  of  Hope,”  165-166 
Dormitories  of  Japanese  factories, 
evils  of,  61-62 

Dress,  styles  in  Ottoman  Em- 
pire, 12;  changes  in,  desired  by 
Turkish  women,  88-90;  Ulviye 
Hanoum  upon,  89-90 

Earnings  of  Japanese  girls,  60 
Editors,  women,  Turkish,  143- 
144;  Indian,  148;  Chinese,  148- 
r49 

Education,  of  factory  girls,  63; 
Moslem  women  desire,  85-87, 
90-92;  need  of,  recognized,  93- 
94;  pride  in  achievements  in,  97- 
99,  108;  demand  for,  stimulated, 
108-110;  Chinese  men  provide, 
111-112;  Chinese  women  desire, 
1 13 ; primary,  compulsory,  1 1 5 ; 
story  of  woman’s,  in  East,  118; 
women  teachers,  13 1;  training 
teachers,  132-133;  renaissance 
of,  in  China,  137-140;  Christian, 
necessary,  208-209;  higher,  in- 
dispensable, 209-210;  see  Teach- 
ers. 

Education  of  girls,  conflicting 
opinions,  81;  subsidized  in 
Egypt,  82;  in  Persia,  83;  in 
Turkey,  83-84;  Mohammedan 
fathers  ambitious  for,  84-85; 
commended,  94;  growth  in,  99- 
100;  urged  by  Mohammedan 
and  Hindu  women,  179 
Educational  Society,  Women’s, 
Japanese,  200 

Egypt,  education  of  girls,  82; 
women  writers  of,  145 


INDEX 


Emancipation,  of  women,  favored, 
82;  desired,  87;  need  for,  recog- 
nized, 93-94;  necessary,  94; 
favored,  111-112 

Entertainers,  Japanese,  see  Geisha 
Erukalas,  reformation  of,  164-165 
Evils,  Turkish  women  encouraged 
to  remedy,  126 

Factories,  in  Moslem  lands,  45-46; 
in  China,  49-54;  increase  of, 
certain,  53;  proportion  of  wom- 
en employed  in,  55;  model,  in 
Japan,  68-70;  see  Japanese  fac- 
tory girls,  Factory  legislation 
Factory  legislation,  53-54,57,  72-73 
Factory  system,  in  Japan,  54 
Factory  workers,  see  Japanese  fac- 
tory girls 

Field  work  of  women,  12,  14,  22- 
23,  24,  28-29,  42 

Foochow,  women’s  industries  at, 

77 

Food,  labor  of  women  in  prepar- 
ing, 17;  insufficient,  62 
Freedom,  desired,  86-87;  desire  for 
crushed,  92-93;  of  Japanese 
woman,  115;  effect  of  desire  for, 
US 

Gale,  Zona,  quoted,  228 
Geisha,  the,  74-75 
Ginling  College,  216-220 
Girls,  education  of,  see  Education 
of  girls 

Gokhale,  Mr.,  quoted,  92-93 
Gospel,  open  doors  for,  223 
Gosse,  Edmund,  quoted,  145-146 
Gulick,  Dr.,  quoted,  69-70,  74,  75 

Hanoum,  Halideh,  142-144 
Hanoum,  Ulviye  M.,  quoted,  86- 
87,  89,  126;  editor,  144 
Hershey,  Prof.  Amos  S.,  quoted, 
7G  73. 

Hindu  girl,  the  day  of  a,  18-19 
Hindu  men  favor  education  of 
girls,  99-100 


235 

Hindu  women  urge  the  education 
of  girls,  179 

Hinduism,  effect  of,  92-93 
Home,  work  within  the,  11-38; 
Moslem,  12;  of  Chinese  woman, 
19;  a Christian,  26;  the  Japanese, 
29-30;  missionary’s,  influence, 
35-36;  Oriental,  and  Christian 
missions,  35-37 

Home  industries,  of  women,  14, 
15,  16,  24-25,  30-31 
Home-maker,  why  Chinese  woman 
is  inefficient  as,  28 
Homes,  Christian,  70-71 
Horizons,  broadening,  81-120;  and 
Christian  missions,  118-119 
Hospital  Association,  Tokyo 
Charity,  201 

Hospital,  tuberculosis,  196-197 
Hospitals  train  nurses,  156 
Hour,  challenge  of  the,  224-225 
House,  Indian,  17 
Housekeepers,  Chinese,  19 
Housework,  12,  17,  29-30 
Hygienic  Association,  Women’s, 
201 

Hygienic  conditions,  56 

Ideals,  changing,  of  the  Orient, 
118-119 

Idleness  of  women  of  leisure,  3 1-34 
Ignorance  makes  Indian  women 
willing  victims,  92-93 
Indemnity-fund  students,  139-140 
India,  household  tasks  in,  16,  17; 
women  aid  men,  17;  women  of 
leisure  in,  32;  the  coolie  woman 
of,  41-42;  woman  in  industry  in, 
46-48;  woman’s  life  in,  92-93; 
and  the  world  war,  105-107;  de- 
mand for  education,  108-110; 
need  for  teachers  in,  135;  re- 
formation of  thieves,  164-165 
Indian  men  enlightened,  106-107 
Indian  National  Conference,  reso- 
lutions passed  by,  94-95 
Indian  woman,  100-107 
Indian  women,  willing  victims 
through  ignorance,  92-93;  signs 


236  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 


of  new  day,  93-94;  as  students, 
pride  in  educational  achieve- 
ments of,  97-99;  mobilized  for 
service,  107-110;  in  the  business 
world,  127;  teachers,  133— 1 3 5 ; 
writers,  145-149;  editors,  148; 
needed  as  physicians,  152-154; 
medical  colleges  for,  154;  pioneer 
physicians,  154-156;  training 
courses  offered  to,  by  medical 
schools  and  hospitals,  156;  patri- 
otism of,  174-176;  and  the  war, 
176-178;  of  all  religious  work 
together  for  Red  Cross,  177; 
working  together,  178-180; 
clubs,  180-185 
industrial  changes,  IX,  54 
Industrial  conditions,  71,  73 
Industrial  success,  cost  of,  62 
Industries,  see  Women’s  industries 
Industries,  home,  see  Home  in- 
dustries 

Infant  mortality,  194-195 
Isabella  Thoburn  College,  210-21 1 
Insane,  the,  helped  by  Ladies  Aid 
Association  for  Lunatics,  201 
Intelligence  of  Chinese  women,  26 

Japan,  field  work  of  women,  28-29; 
home  industries,  30-31;  women 
of  leisure  in,  32-33;  the  coolie 
woman  of,  43-44;  a manufactur- 
ing nation,  54;  no  factory  laws 
now  operative  in,  57;  cheap 
labor,  58;  cost  of  success,  62; 
industrial  conditions  in,  71;  the 
situation  in,  115-117 
Japanese  learn  quickly,  54 
Japanese  factory  girls,  apprenticed 
when  young,  56;  long  hours, 
56,  58-59;  bad  hygienic  and 
moral  conditions,  56;  no  factory 
laws  now  operative,  57;  earnings 
of,  60;  conditions  of  work,  60; 
accidents,  60;  dormitories,  61- 
62;  exposed  to  diseases,  61-62; 
insufficient  food,  62;  stunted 
growth  of,  62;  percentage  of 
sickness  and  disease  abnormal 


amongst,  63;  limited  education 
of,  63;  temptations  of,  arrests 
of,  and  prostitution  amongst, 
64-65;  lured  to  factories  by 
lying  agents,  65-66;  why  they 
stay,  66-67;  welfare  work  for, 
in  factories,  67-70;  efforts  of 
Christian  workers,  in  behalf  of, 
70-71 

Japanese  girls,  education,  115; 
economic  conditions,  115;  dan- 
gers that  threaten,  115-116 

Japanese  woman,  freedom  of,  115; 
lacks  safeguards,  116-117;  Chris- 
tianity the  only  safe  guide  of, 
1 17;  a banker,  130 

Japanese  women,  greatly  affected 
by  introduction  of  factory  sys- 
tem, 54;  in  business,  129-130; 
as  teachers,  140- 141;  writers, 
150;  physicians,  158-159;  nurses, 
159-160;  work  for  Red  Cross  and 
Patriotic  League,  200;  organized 
work  of,  200-202 

Kawai,  Miss  Michi,  quoted,  116 

Kibby,  preparation  of,  13 

Kindergarten,  influence  upon 
Oriental  home,  36-37 

Kipling,  Rudyard,  quoted,  106- 

r I07 

Knowledge,  public  exhorted  to 
aid  spread  of  useful,  95 

Labor,  hours  of,  long  in  Japan,  56, 
58-59;  cheaper  than  machinery 
in  Japan,  58 

Lace,  Armenian  women  as  makers 
of,  15 

Laundry,  see  Washing 

Lawyers,  Oriental  women  as,  160- 
161 

Leaders,  educated,  needed  in 
China,  114;  Christians  should 
furnish,  to  Oriental  nations,  119; 
social  and  religious,  161-163; 
the  call  for,  207-230;  thirst  for, 
207;  training  of,  207-208;  best, 
must  be  native  women,  Chris- 
tian and  educated,  224-225 


INDEX 


Leadership,  social,  of  missionaries, 
203-204 

Lectures  attended  by  Turkish 
women,  90-91 

Leisure,  women  of,  in  Moslem 
countries,  31-32;  in  India  and 
China,  32;  in  Japan,  32-33; 
social  changes  involved  in  broad- 
er outlook,  33-34 
Liberty,  Chinese  women  ask  for, 
113 

Machinery,  changes  work  of  Orien- 
tal women,  44-45;  in  China,  49- 

54;  more  expensive  than  labor  in 
apan,  58 

Madras,  Women’s  Christian  Col- 
lege of,  211-216 

Marriageable  age,  raising  of,  for 
Indian  girls  advocated,  95 
Medical  aid,  Ikuji  society  of 
Japan,  201 

Medical  colleges  for  women,  in 
India,  154;  offer  training  for 
nurses,  156;  the  only,  in  China 
are  under  missionary  auspices, 
156-158 

Medical  schools,  222 
Men,  selfish  and  domineering, 
produce  weak  women,  94 
Meetings  held  by  Chinese  women, 
188-191 

Milk  stations  for  free  distribution, 
195-196 

Miner,  Miss,  quoted,  208-209 
Missionaries,  great  constructive 
social  leadership  of,  203-204 
Missionary  task  and  the  war,  225- 
228 

Mission  industrial  plants,  76-77 
Missions,  see  Christian  missions 
Mission  schools,  the  fruits  of,  118- 
”9 

Mohammedan  fathers,  ambitious 
to  have  daughters  educated,  84- 
85;  99-100 

Mohammedanism,  effect  of,  on 
lives  of  Indian  women,  92-93 


237 

Moral  conditions  in  Japanese  fac- 
tories, 56 

Moslem  countries,  housewife  in, 
12;  women  of  leisure  in,  31-32; 
factories  in,  45-46;  women  phy- 
sicians of,  150-15 1 
Moslems,  progressive,  favor  eman- 
cipation of  women,  82 
Moslem  women,  new  aspirations 
of,  85-87,  90-92;  in  business, 
125-126;  as  teachers,  131-132; 
as  nurses,  151-152;  urge  the 
education  of  girls,  179 
Mother  love  of  Chinese  woman,  27 
Mother’s  Union,  Japanese,  201 

Naidu,  Sarojini,  poetry  and  prose 
of,  145-147;  elected  Fellow 
of  Royal  Society  of  Literature 
of  Great  Britain,  145;  quoted, 
174;  “a  salutation  of  song,” 
177-178 

Nation,  feeble,  results  from  weak 
womanhood,  94 

Near  East,  women  writers  of, 
141-145 

Newspapers,  attitude  of,  towards 
new  life  for  women,  96-97;  see 
Editors 

North  China  Union  College  of 
Peking,  216 

Novels,  effect  of  translations  of 
western,  upon  Japanese  girls, 
116 

Nurses,  Mohammedan  women, 
151-152;  training  offered  for 
women,  in  India,  156;  Chinese, 
158;  Japanese,  159-160;  Japan- 
ese training  schools,  159;  visit- 
ing, employed  by  society  in 
Changsha,  193 

Oldham,  Mr.  J.  H.,  quoted,  227 
Oorfa,  mission  industrial  plant 
at,  76-77 

Orphans,  home  for  Indian,  137 
Oriental  women  as  teachers,  13 1 
Orient,  the  old  and  new,  81-120 


238  WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 


Pamphlets  written  and  circulated 
to  improve  living  conditions,  196 
Patience  of  Chinese  women,  26 
Patrick,  Dr.  Mary,  quoted,  125 
Patriotism,  of  Persian  women,  170- 
172;  of  Turkish  women,  172- 
173;  of  Indian  women,  174-176; 
of  Chinese  women,  185-188;  of 
Japanese  women,  199-200 
Peking,  North  China  Union  Col- 
lege of,  216 

Persia,  education  of  girls  in,  83; 

schools  in  a city  of,  131-132 
Persian  women,  their  lives,  16; 
and  abandonment  of  veil,  87-88; 
and  new  outlook,  91-92;  writers, 
145;  patriotism  of,  1 70-172 
Physicians,  women,  of  Moslem 
lands,  150-151;  needed  in  India, 
152-154;  some  of  the  pioneers  in 
India,  154-156;  Chinese,  156- 
158;  Japanese,  158-159 
Polygamy,  opposed  by  “new” 
women  of  the  Near  East,  89-90; 
decreasing,  90 

Poor,  relief  of,  in  Changsha,  193 
Prostitution,  Japanese  factory 
girls  and,  65;  and  the  “Door  of 
Hope,”  165-166 
Purdah  parties,  ior-103 
Purdah  system,  relaxation  and 
abandonment  of,  advocated,  95 

Reading,  no  time  for,  16 
Red  Crescent,  Society  of,  174 
Red  Cross,  Indian  women  of  all 
religions  work  together  for,  177; 
work  of  Chinese  women  for,  198; 
work  of  Japanese  women,  200 
“Red  Thieves  Tribe,”  reformation 
of,  164-165 

Religious  leaders,  161-163 
Remarriage  of  Indian  widows, 
conferences  favor,  95-96,  100- 
101;  has  brave  advocates,  104- 
io5 

Rescue  homes,  “ Door  of  Hope,” 
165-166;  Japanese,  201 


Resolutions  passed  by  Indian 
National  Conference,  94-95 
Rice,  cultivation  of,  in  Japan,  28- 
29 

Ross,  Prof.  Edward  A.,  quoted, 
119 

Roy,  Basanta  Koomar,  quoted,  94 
Russo-Japanese  war,  work  of  Jap- 
anese women  in,  200 

Sacrifice,  new  meaning  of,  227 
Salih,  Madame  Halideh,  see  Han- 
oum,  Halideh 

School,  Christian,  influence  upon 
Oriental  home,  36 
School,  mission,  for  girls  and 
changing  ideals  of  Orient,  118- 

”9  . 

Schools,  in  a Persian  city,  1 3 1— 
132;  see  Christian  schools 
Self-support  by  women,  forced  by 
tvorld  war,  1 23-1 25;  Moham- 
medan attitude  toward,  125; 
taught  in  a Christian  home  at 
Mukti,  137 

Self-support  of  widows,  in  India, 

96 

Service,  spirit  of,  aroused  in 
Moslem  women,  86-87;  Indian 
women  mobilized  for,  107-no 
Seva  Sadan  or  house  of  service, 
182-185 

Seva  Sadan  Society,  commended 
by  Indian  National  Conference, 
95 

Sewing,  of  Chinese  woman,  20 
Shanghai,  factories  of,  50;  Wom- 
en’s League  of  Service,  197-198 
Shanghai’s  “City  of  Dreadful 
Night,”  165-166 
Shattuck,  Miss  Corinna,  estab- 
lishes women’s  industries  at 
Oorfa,  76-77 

Shekelton,  Miss,  quoted,  113,  114, 
188-190 

Shopkeepers,  women,  in  Japan,  30 
Shuster,  Mr.  Morgan,  quoted, 
170-171 


INDEX  239 


Silk  culture,  a home  industry  for 
women,  15;  work  of  Chinese 
women  in,  24;  in  Japan,  30-31 

Slave  girls  kept  in  China  to  spin 
cotton,  24 

Social  activities,  participation  of 
women  in,  95 

Social  changes,  caused  by  war,  11; 
involved  in  broader  outlook  for 
women  of  leisure,  33-34;  in 
Japan,  due  to  introduction  of 
factory  system,  54 

Social  experiments,  two  Christian, 
164-166 

Social  leaders,  161-163 

Social  leadership  of  Missionaries, 
203-204 

Social  Service  League  of  Changsha 
and  its  work,  192-197 

Social  service  clubs  in  India,  180- 

185 

Societies  of  Indian  women  adopt 
ambitious  educational  and  social 
programs,  108-110 

Society  for  the  Defense  of  Wom- 
en’s Rights,  aims  of,  173-174 

Speer,  Dr.,  quoted,  51,  53,  54, 
162 

Spiritual  view  of  the  world,  the 
fight  for,  227 

Straw  products  made  by  Chinese 
women,  24 

Stocking,  Miss,  quoted,  87-88; 
91-92 

Success,  responsibility  of,  221-222 

Teachers,  Oriental  women  as,  13 1; 
women,  in  Mohammedan  lands, 

131- 132;  training  of,  in  Turkey, 

132- 133;  Indian  women,  133 — 
135;  crying  need  for,  in  India, 
135;  Indian  widows  training  to 
become,  135-136;  need  of  wom- 
en, in  China,  137-138;  chief 
source  of  supply,  139-140;  wom- 
en, of  Japan,  140-141 

Temptations  of  Japanese  factory 
girls,  64-65 


Theatre,  effect  of,  upon  Japanese 
girls,  1 16 

Thieves,  tribe  of,  reformation  by 
Miss  Bullard,  164-165 
Tokyo,  Women’s  Christian  College 
of,  221 

Trail  makers,  the,  123-167 
Tsuda,  Miss  lime,  quoted,  116, 

«7 

Tuberculosis,  free  lectures  upon 
in  Changsha,  194 

Tuberculosis  hospital,  money 
raised  for,  in  Changsha,  196-197 
Turkish  women,  and  the  veil,  88; 
and  the  “ Society  for  the  Defense 
of  Women’s  Rights,”  88-90; 
attend  lectures,  90-91,  encour- 
aged to  earn  their  own  living  to 
remedy  present  evils,  126;  de- 
barred from  many  occupations 
by  veil,  126;  writers,  141-144; 
nurses,  151-152;  patriotism  of, 
172-173 

Turkey,  education  of  girls  favored 
in,  83-84;  training  teachers  in, 
132-133;  women’s  organizations 
in,  173-174 

Uniform  factory  in  Peking,  50 
Union,  the  strength  of,  222 
University  training  open  to  women 
in  Turkey,  84 

Vaccination  in  Changsha,  194 
Van  Doren,  Miss  Alice,  quoted,  136 
Vegetables  raised  by  Moslem 
women,  14 

Veil,  Persian  women  wish  to 
abandon,  87-88;  Turkish  women 
and  the,  88;  Ulviye  Hanoum 
upon,  89;  debars  Turkish  women 
from  many  occupations,  126 
Vocations,  women  forced  into  new, 
123-125 

Wage  earners,  the,  41-79 
War,  cause  of  changes  in  women’s 
work,  1 x ; world,  its  reactions 


240 


WOMEN  WORKERS  OF  THE  ORIENT 


upon  India,  105-107;  women 
and,  123-125;  the,  and  the  mis- 
sionary task,  225-228 

Washing,  in  Moslem  countries,  14; 
in  China,  20;  in  Japan,  30 

Weaving,  Armenian  women  pro- 
ficient in,  15 

Wedding  customs,  old  and  new,  in 
China,  110-in 

Welfare  work  in  Japanese  fac- 
tories, 67-70 

Whealdon,  Miss  Martha,  quoted, 

47-48 

Wheat  raised  by  Moslem  women, 
12 

Widows,  remarriage  of,  confer- 
ences favor,  95-96;  self-sup- 
port of,  96;  number  of,  in  India, 
96,  100-101;  brave  advocates  of, 
104-105;  training  to  become 
teachers,  135-136;  home  for,  137 

Wife,  tribute  to  Chinese  Chris- 
tian, 26-27 

Woman,  see  Chinese,  Indian,  and 
Japanese  woman 

Womanhood,  weak,  means  a feeble 
nation,  94 

Woman’s  Christian  Temperance 
Union,  198,  201 

Woman’s  sphere  broadened  by 
world  war,  123-125 

Woman’s  tasks,  11 

Women,  Persian,  life  of,  16;  in 
Japan,  assist  men  in  household 
industries,  30;  as  unskilled 
laborers  in  India,  41-42;  in 
China,  42-43;  in  Japan,  43-44; 
in  industry,  in  India,  46-48; 
proportion  in  industry,  55; 
emancipation  of,  favored  by  pro- 


gressive Moslems,  82;  the  new 
aspirations  of  Moslem,  85-87; 
life  of  Indian,  92-93;  new  life 
for,  attitude  of  newspapers  to- 
wards, 96-97;  and  the  world  war, 
123—125 ; see  Chinese,  Indian, 
Japanese,  Moslem,  Persian,  and 
Turkish  women 

Women  working  together,  169- 
205;  Christian  missions  and, 
203-204 

Women’s  Christian  College,  of 
Madras,  211-216;  of  Tokyo,  221 
Women’s  clubs  in  India,  180-185 
Women’s  industries,  Christian  mis- 
sions and,  76-77 

Women’s  League  of  Service  of 
Shanghai,  197-198 
Women’s  organizations,  in  Turkey, 
173-174;  in  China,  192-199;  in 
Japan,  200-202 

Women’s  Rights,  Society  for  the 
Defense  of,  88;  encourages 
Turkish  women  to  earn  their 
own  living,  126;  aims  of,  173- 
, 174 

Women’s  work,  affected  by  ma- 
chinery, 44-45;  in  Moslem  lands, 
45-46 

Womens  World , The,  illustrated 
Turkish  weekly,  144 
Work  within  the  home,  11-38 
World  is  beginning,  all  should 
help  to  shape  it,  228 
Writers,  women,  of  the  Near 
East,  141-145;  of  India,  145- 
147;  of  Japan,  150 

Young  Women’s  Christian  Asso- 
ciation, 198-199,  202 


DATE  DUE 

Ofi  s , 

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DEMCO  38-297 

Enters  of  the  Orient 


